There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Sleep is characterized by a structured combination of neuronal oscillations. In the
hippocampus, slow-wave sleep (SWS) is marked by high-frequency network oscillations
(approximately 200 Hz "ripples"), whereas neocortical SWS activity is organized into
low-frequency delta (1-4 Hz) and spindle (7-14 Hz) oscillations. While these types
of hippocampal and cortical oscillations have been studied extensively in isolation,
the relationships between them remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate the existence
of temporal correlations between hippocampal ripples and cortical spindles that are
also reflected in the correlated activity of single neurons within these brain structures.
Spindle-ripple episodes may thus constitute an important mechanism of cortico-hippocampal
communication during sleep. This coactivation of hippocampal and neocortical pathways
may be important for the process of memory consolidation, during which memories are
gradually translated from short-term hippocampal to longer-term neocortical stores.