The Multidimensional Aspects of Sleep Spindles and Their Relationship to Word-Pair Memory Consolidation

Lustenberger, Caroline; Wehrle, Flavia M.; Tüshaus, Laura; Achermann, Peter; Huber, Reto

doi:10.5665/sleep.4820

Cited by 85 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 59 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We replicate this correlation in the sham night with different spindle characteristics and found the same frequency bins and electrodes of spindle density and duration significantly correlating with motor memory consolidation. Several studies hypothesized that slow and fast frequency spindles might serve different functions [5, 39, 55]. Each spindle type shows a different topography with slower spindle frequencies (around 12 Hz) being preferentially visible over frontal areas whereas fast sleep spindles (around 14 Hz) are more pronounced over centro-parietal regions [5, 54, 56, 57].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feedback-Controlled Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Reveals a Functional Role of Sleep Spindles in Motor Memory Consolidation

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Transient episodes of brain oscillations are a common feature of both the waking and sleeping brain. Sleep spindles represent a prominent example of a poorly understood transient brain oscillation that is impaired in disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Yet, the causal role of these bouts of thalamo-cortical oscillations remains unknown. Demonstrating a functional role of sleep spindles in cognitive processes has so far been hindered by the lack of a tool to target transient brain oscillations in real-time. Here, we show for the first time selective enhancement of sleep spindles with non-invasive brain stimulation in humans. We developed a system that detects sleep spindles in real-time and applies oscillatory stimulation. Our stimulation selectively enhanced spindle activity as determined by increased sigma activity after tACS application. This targeted modulation caused significant enhancement of motor memory consolidation that correlated with the stimulation-induced change in fast spindle activity. Strikingly, we found a similar correlation between motor memory and spindle characteristics during the sham night for the same spindle frequencies and electrode locations. Therefore, our results directly demonstrate a functional relationship between oscillatory spindle activity and cognition.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feedback-Controlled Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Reveals a Functional Role of Sleep Spindles in Motor Memory Consolidation

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The automated spindle detection method is universal, i.e. not specific to a montage, and has successfully been applied to the sleep EEG of children assessed with 128 channels (Lustenberger, Wehrle, Tushaus, Achermann, & Huber, ) and with the current montage (Astill et al., ; Piantoni et al., ). Spindle features quantified were duration, maximal amplitude, duration × maximal amplitude, power and density (the number of spindles per 30 s epoch of sleep).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep spindle characteristics and sleep architecture are associated with learning of executive functions in school‐age children

Vermeulen

Heijden

Swaab

et al. 2018

Journal of Sleep Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The macro‐ and microstructural characteristics of sleep electroencephalography have been associated with several aspects of executive functioning. However, only a few studies have addressed the association of sleep characteristics with the learning involved in the acquisition of executive functions, and no study has investigated this for planning and problem‐solving skills in the developing brain of children. The present study examined whether children's sleep stages and microstructural sleep characteristics are associated with performance improvement over repeated assessments of the Tower of Hanoi task, which requires integrated planning and problem‐solving skills. Thirty children (11 boys, mean age 10.7 years, SD = 0.8) performed computerized parallel versions of the Tower of Hanoi three times across 2 days, including a night with polysomnographically assessed sleep. Pearson correlations were used to evaluate the associations of Tower of Hanoi solution time improvements across repeated assessments with sleep stages (% of total sleep time), slow‐wave activity, and fast and slow spindle features. The results indicated a stronger performance improvement across wake in children with more Stage N2 sleep and less slow‐wave sleep. Stronger improvements across sleep were present in children in whom slow spindles were more dense, and in children in whom fast spindles were less dense, of shorter duration and had less power. The findings indicate that specific sleep electroencephalography signatures reflect the ability of the developing brain to acquire and improve on integrated planning and problem‐solving skills.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, fast spindles are prominent in both stage 2 and 3 non-REM sleep, whereas slow spindles are preferentially expressed during stage 3 (Mölle and Bergmann, 2011); thus the two oscillations also appear to be subject to differential state-dependent control. Reports conflict on whether fast or slow spindles are most closely tied to memory consolidation (Mölle and Bergmann, 2011; Lustenberger et al, 2014), raising the possibility that these two widespread oscillations may also be independently amplified according to behavioral demand.…”

Section: Thalamic Contributions To Widespread Oscillationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tapping the Brakes: Cellular and Synaptic Mechanisms that Regulate Thalamic Oscillations

Fogerson

Huguenard

2016

Neuron

129

135

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Thalamic oscillators contribute to both normal rhythms associated with sleep and anesthesia and abnormal, hypersynchronous oscillations that manifest behaviorally as absence seizures. In this review, we highlight new findings that refine thalamic contributions to cortical rhythms and suggest that thalamic oscillators may be subject to both local and global control. We describe endogenous thalamic mechanisms that limit network synchrony and discuss how these protective brakes might be restored to prevent absence seizures. Finally, we describe how intrinsic and circuit-level specializations among thalamocortical loops may determine their involvement in widespread oscillations and render subsets of thalamic nuclei especially vulnerable to pathological synchrony.

show abstract

The Multidimensional Aspects of Sleep Spindles and Their Relationship to Word-Pair Memory Consolidation

Abstract: Our results demonstrate the importance of a multidimensional approach when investigating the relationship between sleep spindles and memory consolidation and thereby provide a more complete picture explaining divergent findings in the literature.

Cited by 85 publications

References 59 publications

Feedback-Controlled Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Reveals a Functional Role of Sleep Spindles in Motor Memory Consolidation

Feedback-Controlled Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Reveals a Functional Role of Sleep Spindles in Motor Memory Consolidation

Sleep spindle characteristics and sleep architecture are associated with learning of executive functions in school‐age children

Tapping the Brakes: Cellular and Synaptic Mechanisms that Regulate Thalamic Oscillations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About