Even during sleep, the brain is still active

Scientists from Cambridge, in collaboration with Parisians, have come up with an interesting news - even during sleep our brain is still active and people are even able to sort words during sleep. Participants in the study first took a word test while they were still awake, and then continued to answer while they slept. And the answers were correct!

It turns out that even a sleeping brain can perform complex tasks, especially if the task is automated. This may explain some everyday experiences, such as our sensitivity to our name or to a specific alarm clock sound compared to another sound of the same volume.

The study used an EEG, an electroencephalographic examination, to capture the brain activity of the study participants. They were asked to press a button to sort individual spoken words during the study - specifically, they pressed a button with their right hand if it was an animal and with their left hand if it was an object. With this simple task, the researchers were able to map the responses and their specific reflection in the brain. The "patients" were then placed in a dark room with their eyes closed and continued to make verbal classifications until they fell asleep. During sleep, they were then asked entirely new questions (no longer pressing buttons, of course), while brain activity continued and correctly, although at a noticeably slower rate.
Source: BBC News