Abstract
In humans, non rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and especially slow wave sleep (SWS) has long been viewed as a state of brain quiescence. In contrast, animal neurophysiology has demonstrated that the main NREM sleep oscillations, spindles and slow waves are associated with distinct firing patterns in thalamo-cortical loops. Recent neuroimaging studies showed that significant activity was associated with slow (>140 μV) and delta waves (75–140 μV) during NREM sleep in several cortical areas including inferior frontal, medial prefrontal, precuneus and posterior cingulate cortices. Likewise, spindles were associated with a transient activity in the thalami, paralimbic areas (anterior cingulate and insular cortices) and superior temporal gyri. Moreover, slow spindles (11–13 Hz) were associated with increased activity in the superior frontal gyrus. In contrast, fast spindles (13–15 Hz) recruited a set of cortical regions involved in sensorimotor processing, as well as the mesial frontal cortex and hippocampus.
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