Fig. 1
From: Rhythmic movements in sleep disorders and in epileptic seizures during sleep
The Triune Brain (MacLean, 1990). The immature paleomammalian neonatal brain (a) is unable to efficiently control motor output, due to incomplete myelination. Thus, fundamental (alimentary) and protective motor reflexes, like grasping and avoidance, are carried out by subcortical CPGs. (b) The mature neopallium controls and inhibits during conscious wakefulness most of these reflexes which may reemerge under special conditions, due to transient loss of neocortical control, as in c (during an epileptic seizure), or in d (during cerebral anoxia or in parasomnia/sleep-related motor events). Modified with permission from Tassinari et al., 2009