Slow oscillations promote long-range effective communication: The key for memory consolidation in a broken-down network.

ABSTRACT: A prominent and robust finding in cognitive neuroscience is the strengthening of memories during nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, with slow oscillations (SOs;<1Hz) playing a critical role in systems-level consolidation. However, NREM generally shows a breakdown in connectivity and reduction of synaptic plasticity with increasing depth: a brain state seemingly unfavorable to memory consolidation. Here, we present an approach to address this apparent paradox that leverages an event-related causality measure to estimate directional information flow during NREM in epochs with and without SOs. Our results confirm that NREM is generally a state of dampened neural communication but reveals that SOs provide two windows of enhanced large-scale communication before and after the SO trough. These

SUBMITTER: Niknazar H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9245646 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature