Eugene Leitl wrote in message <14221.26305.337073.729660 at lrz.de>...
>flefever writes:
>> > Also saw something about dolphins, e.g. REM in one hemisphere at a
> > time, but in one of these newsgroups; no references.
>>Urban legend has it that dolphins require partial wakefulness to
>assure respiratory air intake (and thus don't take kindly to
>anaesthesia: they drown). They accomplish it by alternating
>wakefullness between hemispheres (wish we could do that trick).
>Alas, also no ref here...
>
We do that trick: we breath with our diaphragm thanks to our respiratory
centers so that we can use our brains to dream during REM sleep.
To assume that the reason that dolphins keep half their brain awake is so
they can breath is not necessarily a logical conclusion because other
mammals can do the same thing using other mechanisms. Perhaps there is
another reason that has to do with the fact they are underwater and the
breathing thing is secondary to that.
Jeff Utz
