SOME SENSORY STIMULI GENERATE SPONTANEOUS K-COMPLEXES

The present study was performed in order to determine whether spontane ous K-complex are induced by sensory stimuli. Electroencephalogram (EE G) segments in stage 3 sleep containing an evoked K-complex or spontan eous K-complex were separately averaged with respect to the peak of N3 00, one of the main components constituting the K-complex. Small negat ive and positive components were found immediately before the main com ponents of spontaneous It-complex in averaged EEG. These two component s were judged to correspond ts N100 and P200 induced by the sound stim ulus. The present findings suggest that the spontaneous K-complex is n ot a spontaneous phenomenon but that it is induced by sensory stimuli.