title: Local origin of slow EEG waves during sleep.
abstract: Neuronal activity mediating EEG slow waves consists of synchronous alternation of intracellular active and silent states. Recent data demonstrate that each active state of a sleep slow wave originates in a particular cortical location and propagate to involve other cortical areas. Preferential sites of origin of these waves are: the frontal cortex in adult humans, the associative cortex in cats and the somatosensory cortex in mice. In the site of origin of these slow waves any neuron can initiate a particular cycle, however there are neuronal groups with high likelihood of triggering a particular cycle. In epileptic patients, these neurons are mostly located in superficial layers, but in healthy experimental animals, populations ofintrinsically bursting neurons with a high probability of triggering spontaneous active states have been found in deeper cortical layers.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recherche Université Laval Robert-Giffard (CRULRG), Université Laval, Québec, Canada, Igor.Timofeev@phs.ulaval.ca
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Timofeev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058256:Brain Waves / Q000502:physiology*; D002415:Cats; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000503:physiopathology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012895:Sleep, REM; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology