Author: Thomas Schreiner1, Marit Petzka2,3, Tobias Staudigl4, Bernhard P Staresina5,6
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany. Thomas.Schreiner@psy.lmu.de.
<sup>2</sup> Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
<sup>3</sup> Institute of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
<sup>4</sup> Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany.
<sup>5</sup> Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. bernhard.staresina@psy.ox.ac.uk.
<sup>6</sup> Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. bernhard.staresina@psy.ox.ac.uk.
Conference/Journal: Nat Commun
Date published: 2023 Dec 18
Other:
Volume ID: 14 , Issue ID: 1 , Pages: 8351 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43450-5. , Word Count: 173
The beneficial effect of sleep on memory consolidation relies on the precise interplay of slow oscillations and spindles. However, whether these rhythms are orchestrated by an underlying pacemaker has remained elusive. Here, we tested the relationship between respiration, which has been shown to impact brain rhythms and cognition during wake, sleep-related oscillations and memory reactivation in humans. We re-analysed an existing dataset, where scalp electroencephalography and respiration were recorded throughout an experiment in which participants (N = 20) acquired associative memories before taking a nap. Our results reveal that respiration modulates the emergence of sleep oscillations. Specifically, slow oscillations, spindles as well as their interplay (i.e., slow-oscillation_spindle complexes) systematically increase towards inhalation peaks. Moreover, the strength of respiration - slow-oscillation_spindle coupling is linked to the extent of memory reactivation (i.e., classifier evidence in favour of the previously learned stimulus category) during slow-oscillation_spindles. Our results identify a clear association between respiration and memory consolidation in humans and highlight the role of brain-body interactions during sleep.
PMID: 38110418 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43450-5