title: State-dependent spike-timing relationships between hippocampal and prefrontal circuits during sleep.
abstract: Cortico-hippocampal interactions during sleep are believed to reorganize neural circuits in support of memory consolidation. However, spike-timing relationships across cortico-hippocampal networks-key determinants of synaptic changes-are poorly understood. Here we show that cells in prefrontal cortex fire consistently within 100 ms after hippocampal cells in naturally sleeping animals. This provides evidence at the single cell-pair level for highly consistent directional interactions between these areas within the window of plasticity. Moreover, these interactions are state dependent: they are driven by hippocampal sharp-wave/ripple (SWR) bursts in slow-wave sleep (SWS) and are sharply reduced during REM sleep. Finally, prefrontal responses are nonlinear: as the strength of hippocampal bursts rises, short-latency prefrontal responses are augmented by increased spindle band activity and a secondary peak approximately 100 ms later. These findings suggest that SWR events are atomic units of hippocampal-prefrontal communication during SWS and that the coupling between these areas is highly attenuated during REM sleep.
authors.affiliation: Computation and Neural Systems Program, Division of Biology, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Casimir M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Wierzynski
authors.forename: Evgueniy V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Lubenov
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Athanassios G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Siapas
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004594:Electrophysiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012894:Sleep Stages; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology