Slow oscillation-sleep spindle coupling is associated with fear extinction retention in trauma-exposed individuals.

ABSTRACT: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be characterized as a disorder of fear learning and memory, in which there is a failure to retain memory for the extinction of conditioned fear. Sleep has been implicated in successful extinction retention. The coupling of sleep spindles to slow oscillations (SOs) during non-rapid eye movement sleep has been shown to broadly underpin sleep's beneficial effect on memory consolidation. However, the role of this oscillatory coupling in the retention of extinction memories is unknown. In a large sample of 124 trauma-exposed individuals, we investigated SO-spindle coupling in relation to fear extinction memory. We found that participants with a PTSD diagnosis, relative to trauma-exposed controls, showed significantly altered SO-spindle timing, such that

SUBMITTER: Denis D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11838212 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature