CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN
COGNITION & NEUROSCIENCES/ConnexConnex

We will here advocate that cardiac responses to sounds, that are typically neglected from studies about cognitive processes during sleep, contain meaningful information beyond that obtained with cerebral activity. To do so, we will present three studies showing that cardiac responses encode (i) a basic integration of internal and external sensory inputs during wakefulness, (ii) different complexity levels of auditory predictions depending on sleep stages, (iii) an embodied form of semantic processing during sleep. Overall, this talk will offer an empirical demonstration of the embodiment of auditory processing during sleep and highlight the value of cardiac signals in advancing our understanding of sleep functions.