Recent research revealed a surprisingly large range of cognitive operations to be preserved during sleep in humans. The new challenge is therefore to understand functions and mechanisms of processes, which so far have been mainly investigated in awake subjects. The current study focuses on dynamic changes of brain oscillations and connectivity patterns in response to environmental stimulation during non-REM sleep. Our results indicate that aurally presented names were processed and neuronally differentiated across the wake-sleep spectrum. Simultaneously recorded EEG and MEG signals revealed two distinct clusters of oscillatory power increase in response to the stimuli: (1) vigilance state-independent synchronization occurring immediately after stimulus onset, followed by (2) sleep-specific α/ synchronization peaking after stimulus offset. We discuss the possible role of , α, and oscillations during non-REM sleep, and work toward a unified theory of brain rhythms and their functions during sleep.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Previous research has revealed (residual) capacity of the sleeping human brain to interact with the environment. How sensory processing is realized by the neural assemblies in different stages of sleep is however unclear. To tackle this question, we examined simultaneously recorded MEG and EEG data. We discuss the possible role of , α, and oscillations during non-REM sleep. In contrast to versatile band response that reflected early stimulus processing step, succeeding α and band activity was sensitive to the saliency of the incoming information, and contingent on the sleep stage. Our findings suggest that the specific reorganization of mechanisms involved in later stages of sensory processing takes place upon falling asleep.

最近的研究表明，人类在睡眠期间需要保存大量的认知操作。因此，新的挑战是了解过程的功能和机制，迄今为止主要在清醒受试者中进行了研究。目前的研究侧重于非快速眼动睡眠期间响应环境刺激的大脑振荡和连接模式的动态变化。我们的结果表明，听觉呈现的名称在唤醒-睡眠频谱中被处理和神经元区分。同时记录的脑电图和脑电图信号揭示了两个不同的振荡功率簇响应于刺激而增加：（1）刺激开始后立即发生与警觉状态无关的同步，然后是（2）刺激偏移后睡眠特异性α/同步峰值。

意义声明先前的研究已经揭示了睡眠中的人脑与环境相互作用的（剩余）能力。然而，尚不清楚不同睡眠阶段的神经组件如何实现感觉处理。为了解决这个问题，我们检查了同时记录的 MEG 和 EEG 数据。我们讨论了非快速眼动睡眠中α、α和振荡的可能作用。与反映早期刺激处理步骤的多功能带响应相比，后续的 α 和带活动对传入信息的显着性敏感，并且取决于睡眠阶段。我们的研究结果表明，在感觉处理后期阶段所涉及的机制的特定重组发生在入睡时。