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Dolphins Can Sleep One-half of Their Brain At a Time Say Researchers
An anonymous reader writes "Looks like the evolution in multi-core computing is something nature has already figured out. Dolphins will sleep one core while the other remains vigilant, running background tasks necessary for survival. From the article: 'The scientists wrote: "From an anthropomorphic viewpoint, the ability of the dolphin to continuously monitor its environment for days without interruption seems extreme. However, the biological, sensory and cognitive ecology of these animals is relatively unique and demanding. If dolphins sleep like terrestrial animals, they might drown. If dolphins fail to maintain vigilance, they become susceptible to predation. As a result, the apparent 'extreme' capabilities these animals possess are likely to be quite normal, unspectacular, and necessary for survival from the dolphin's perspective."'"
This is known long ago... this is also an adaptation because dolphins breathing is not a reflex, so half the brain has to be always awake to remember breathing.
The news is that they can stay awake for 15 days at a time. Scientists have known for 30 years that dolphins can sleep with one hemisphere.
Republicans have been doing that for years.
*rimshot*
Hasn't this already been well known or quite some time?
The real question is: Why is sleep needed in mammals in the first place? We've already found drugs that can keep a person going without sleep for weeks or months at a time, apparently without any significant reduction in cognitive ability or any significant change in neurological functioning. It's been investigated my the military for quite some time now.
Evolution says the reason for sleep is that it improves a creature's ability to adapt... but what does sleep adapt us for? Why the downtime? Even here with mammals where never going to sleep is a survival necessity... nature kept it intact and instead segmented the brain so parts of it could sleep. Something about sleep is very, very important... but be damned if we can figure out what.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
As a former dolphin researcher at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory of the University of Hawaii I can say that we've known about split brain sleeping for at least three decades. I had always wanted to run an experiment looking for an acoustic equivalent to Rapid Eye Movement in dolphins. It could still be called REM sleep just substituting Eye with Echolocation. Since you really don't want to attach EKG leads to a swimming dolphin we'd have needed a set of directional hydrophones arrayed around the tank who's data would be correlated with the dolphin's head position as it swam. Perhaps this could be tackled now but back in the day it was beyond us.
Now when she asks why I don't listen to her, I can just explain that the half of my brain running the audio is shut down to conserve energy.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
This is old "news". (Can we call it "olds"?)
Supposedly when you see a row of birds standing on a cable, all the ones in the middle are asleep, and the two on the end have half a brain awake so that their outside eye is paying attention.
More recent result is that even in humans, 'asleep' isn't a boolean proposition. Different parts of your brain may go to sleep at different times. Sometimes leads to "normal" sleepwalking, sometimes to horrid behavior because the impluse-suppression part is asleep and most of the rest isn't. See the overview article in a recent issue of Scientific American. (Current or previous issue, IIRC.)
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
We are indeed inferior to dolphins, brain-wise. Makes you wonder what the mice can pull off!
Depends on whether you're talking about Pinky or The Brain.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Whats really amazing is that, despite the claims that the right is the party of hate, it always seems to be the left calling us names.
Stay classy slashdot.
It is not name-calling, it is pointing out facts. Huge difference there.
I'm pretty sure there's a joke in there somewhere.
Only a half brain operating? I know people who...
...drive like that.
...talk like that.
...code like that.
...make decisions at Microsoft like that.
...decide to buy Apple products like that.
and so on...
Your body might suffer from your brain not sleeping, for instance when you drive into a wall, but there is nothing in particular the body needs sleep (different than rest) for. From the perspective of your body, you sleeping is just a reduction in the amount of talking your brain does. That said, the body can handle lots of things the brain can't. Some desert mammals (goats, in particular) can let their body heat up way past what would be fatal for their brains, while using some nifty plumbing to keep their brains cool enough to survive.
This is known long ago... this is also an adaptation because dolphins breathing is not a reflex, so half the brain has to be always awake to remember breathing.
In fact, here's a 2009 article in National Geographic on the exact same topic from 2009. It was not the first, either.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire