delta wave

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Delta waves

A delta wave is a large, slow (2 Hz or less) brain wave recorded with an EEG and is usually associated with deep sleep.

Delta activity is characterized by frequencies under 3 Hz and is absent in awake healthy adults, but is physiological and normal in awake children under the age of 13. Delta waves are also naturally present in stage three and four of sleep (deep sleep) but not in stages 1, 2, and rapid eye movement (REM) of sleep. Finally, delta rhythm can be observed in cases of brain injury and comatic patients.

Human non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is divided in the categories 2, 3, and 4 by the percentage of slow waves.

Trivia

• A delta wave is seen in the heart using a ECG in the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome context.
• In the cartoon Futurama, Phillip J. Fry loses his brain's ability to produce delta waves when he became his own grandfather, which helps him save the universe twice.
• The Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who makes a Delta Wave in the last episode, trying to kill the Daleks.
• The brain in Donovan's Brain uses delta waves to communicate with, and ultimately control, Dr. Patrick Arthur Corey.
• In Stargate Atlantis; Dr. Rodney McKay notices that Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard was emitting delta waves when he was plugged into a virtual reality. He was giving off delta waves because he was asleep/unconscious in the virtual reality (which puts you in stasis anyway)

See also

• Electroencephalography
• SMR
• Sensory Integration Dysfunction
• Holonomic brain theory
• Slow-wave sleep
• Sleep
• Alpha wave
• Beta wave
• Gamma wave
• Theta wave

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