title: Corticothalamic feedback controls sleep spindle duration in vivo.
abstract: Spindle oscillations are commonly observed during stage 2 of non-rapid eye movement sleep. During sleep spindles, the cerebral cortex and thalamus interact through feedback connections. Both initiation and termination of spindle oscillations are thought to originate in the thalamus based on thalamic recordings and computational models, although some in vivo results suggest otherwise. Here, we have used computer modeling and in vivo multisite recordings from the cortex and the thalamus in cats to examine the involvement of the cortex in spindle oscillations. We found that although the propagation of spindles depended on synaptic interaction within the thalamus, the initiation and termination of spindle sequences critically involved corticothalamic influences.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
authors.forename: Maxime
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonjean
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Maxime
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lemieux
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Timofeev
authors.forename: Terrence
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sejnowski
authors.forename: Maxim
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bazhenov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D002415:Cats; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology*