Dataset Information

Precise Slow Oscillation-Spindle Coupling Promotes Memory Consolidation in Younger and Older Adults.

ABSTRACT: Memory consolidation during sleep relies on the precisely timed interaction of rhythmic neural events. Here, we investigate differences in slow oscillations (SO; 0.5-1?Hz), sleep spindles (SP), and their coupling across the adult human lifespan and ask whether observed alterations relate to the ability to retain associative memories across sleep. We demonstrate that older adults do not show the fine-tuned coupling of fast SPs (12.5-16?Hz) to the SO peak present in younger adults but, instead, are characterized most by a slow SP power increase (9-12.5?Hz) at the end of the SO up-state. This slow SP power increase, typical for older adults, coincides with worse memory consolidation in young age already, whereas the tight precision of SO-fast SP coupling promotes memory consolidation across younger and older adults. Crucially, brain integrity in source regions of SO and SP generation, including the medial prefrontal cortex, thalamus, hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, reinforces this beneficial SO-SP coupling in old age. Our results reveal that cognitive functioning is not only determined by maintaining structural brain integrity across the adult lifespan, but also by the preservation of precisely timed neural interactions during sleep that enable the consolidation of declarative memories.

SUBMITTER: Muehlroth BE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6374430 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Precise Slow Oscillation-Spindle Coupling Promotes Memory Consolidation in Younger and Older Adults.

Muehlroth Beate E BE Sander Myriam C MC Fandakova Yana Y Grandy Thomas H TH Rasch Björn B Shing Yee Lee YL Werkle-Bergner Markus M

Scientific reports 20190213 1

Memory consolidation during sleep relies on the precisely timed interaction of rhythmic neural events. Here, we investigate differences in slow oscillations (SO; 0.5-1 Hz), sleep spindles (SP), and their coupling across the adult human lifespan and ask whether observed alterations relate to the ability to retain associative memories across sleep. We demonstrate that older adults do not show the fine-tuned coupling of fast SPs (12.5-16 Hz) to the SO peak present in younger adults but, instead, ar ...[more]

PMID: 30760741

Similar Datasets

Project description:Sleep manifests itself by the spontaneous emergence of characteristic oscillatory rhythms, which often time-lock and are implicated in memory formation. Here, we analyze a neural mass model of the thalamocortical loop in which the cortical node can generate slow oscillations (approximately 1 Hz) while its thalamic component can generate fast sleep spindles of σ-band activity (12-15 Hz). We study the dynamics for different coupling strengths between the thalamic and cortical nodes, for different conductance values of the thalamic node's potassium leak and hyperpolarization-activated cation-nonselective currents, and for different parameter regimes of the cortical node. The latter are listed as follows: (1) a low activity (DOWN) state with noise-induced, transient excursions into a high activity (UP) state, (2) an adaptation induced slow oscillation limit cycle with alternating UP and DOWN states, and (3) a high activity (UP) state with noise-induced, transient excursions into the low activity (DOWN) state. During UP states, thalamic spindling is abolished or reduced. During DOWN states, the thalamic node generates sleep spindles, which in turn can cause DOWN to UP transitions in the cortical node. Consequently, this leads to spindle-induced UP state transitions in parameter regime (1), thalamic spindles induced in some but not all DOWN states in regime (2), and thalamic spindles following UP to DOWN transitions in regime (3). The spindle-induced σ-band activity in the cortical node, however, is typically the strongest during the UP state, which follows a DOWN state "window of opportunity" for spindling. When the cortical node is parametrized in regime (3), the model well explains the interactions between slow oscillations and sleep spindles observed experimentally during Non-Rapid Eye Movement sleep. The model is computationally efficient and can be integrated into large-scale modeling frameworks to study spatial aspects like sleep wave propagation.

Dataset Information

Precise Slow Oscillation-Spindle Coupling Promotes Memory Consolidation in Younger and Older Adults.

Publications

Precise Slow Oscillation-Spindle Coupling Promotes Memory Consolidation in Younger and Older Adults.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets