The Brain Selectively Tunes to Unfamiliar Voices during Sleep

The brain continues to respond selectively to environmental stimuli during sleep. However, the functional role of such responses, and whether they reflect information processing or rather sensory inhibition, is not fully understood. Here, we present 17 human sleepers (14 females) with their own name and two unfamiliar first names, spoken by either a familiar voice (FV) or an unfamiliar voice (UFV), while recording polysomnography during a full night of sleep. We detect K-complexes, sleep spindles, and microarousals, and assess event-related and frequency responses as well as intertrial phase synchronization to the different stimuli presented during nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. We show that UFVs evoke more K-complexes and microarousals than FVs. When both stimuli evoke a K-complex, we observe larger evoked potentials, more precise time-locking of brain responses in the delta band (1–4 Hz), and stronger activity in the high frequency (>16 Hz) range, in response to UFVs relative to FVs. Crucially, these differences in brain responses disappear completely when no K-complexes are evoked by the auditory stimuli. Our findings highlight discrepancies in brain responses to auditory stimuli based on their relevance to the sleeper and propose a key role for K-complexes in the modulation of sensory processing during sleep. We argue that such content-specific, dynamic reactivity to external sensory information enables the brain to enter a sentinel processing mode in which it engages in the important internal processes that are ongoing during sleep while still maintaining the ability to process vital external sensory information. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Previous research has shown that sensory processing continues during sleep. Here, we studied the capacity of the sleeping brain to extract and process relevant sensory information. We presented sleepers with their own names and unfamiliar names spoken by either an FV or a UFV. During NREM sleep, UFVs elicited more K-complexes and microarousals than FVs. By contrasting stimuli that evoked K-complexes, we demonstrate that UFVs evoked larger, more synchronized brain responses as well as stronger power at high frequencies (>16 Hz) relative to FVs. These differences in brain responses disappeared when no K-complexes were evoked. Our results suggest a pivotal role for K-complexes in the selective processing of relevant information during NREM sleep.