ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7582-2215; Noachtar, Soheyl; Mehrkens, Jan-Hinnerk and Staudigl, Tobias
(12. December 2021):
The human thalamus orchestrates neocortical oscillations during NREM sleep.
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Abstract
A hallmark of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is the coordinated interplay of slow oscillations (SOs) and sleep spindles. Traditionally, a cortico-thalamo-cortical loop is suggested to coordinate these rhythms: neocortically-generated SOs trigger spindles in the thalamus that are projected back to neocortex. Here, we used direct intrathalamic recordings from human epilepsy patients to test this canonical interplay. We show that SOs in the anterior thalamus precede neocortical SOs, whereas concurrently-recorded SOs in the mediodorsal thalamus are led by neocortical SOs. Furthermore, sleep spindles, detected in both thalamic nuclei, preceded their neocortical counterparts and were initiated during early phases of thalamic SOs. Our findings indicate an active role of the anterior thalamus in organizing the cardinal sleep rhythms in the neocortex and highlight the functional diversity of specific thalamic nuclei in humans. The concurrent coordination of sleep oscillations by the thalamus could have broad implications for the mechanisms underlying memory consolidation.
Item Type: | Paper |
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EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: | 802681 |
EU Projects: | Horizon 2020 > ERC Grants > ERC Starting Grant > ERC Grant 802681: DirectThalamus - How the human thalamus guides navigation and memory: a common coding framework built on direct thalamic recordings |
Faculties: | Medicine Psychology and Education Science > Department Psychology |
Subjects: | 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 150 Psychology |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-epub-91111-3 |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 91111 |
Date Deposited: | 21. Feb 2022, 10:38 |
Last Modified: | 21. Feb 2022, 10:38 |