Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
Prog Brain Res. 2011;193:111-8. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53839-0.00008-9.
Recent neuroimaging studies characterized the neural correlates of slow waves and spindles during human non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. They showed that significant activity was consistently 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. Unexpectedly, slow waves were also associated with transient responses in the pontine tegmentum and in the cerebellum. On the other hand, 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. These findings indicate that human NREM sleep is an active state during which brain activity is temporally organized by spontaneous oscillations (spindles and slow oscillation) in a regionally specific manner. The functional significance of these NREM sleep oscillations is currently interpreted in terms of synaptic homeostasis and memory consolidation.
最近的神经影像学研究描述了人类非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠期间慢波和纺锤波的神经相关性。研究表明，在包括额下回、内侧前额叶、楔前叶和后扣带回皮质在内的几个皮质区域中，NREM 睡眠期间的慢波（>140μV）和 delta 波（75-140μV）与显著的活动始终相关。出乎意料的是，慢波也与桥脑被盖和小脑的瞬态反应有关。另一方面，纺锤波与丘脑、边缘区域（前扣带回和脑岛皮质）和颞上回的瞬态活动有关。此外，慢纺锤波（11-13Hz）与额上回活动增加有关。相比之下，快纺锤波（13-15Hz）募集了一组涉及感觉运动处理的皮质区域，以及额内侧皮质和海马体。这些发现表明，人类 NREM 睡眠是一种活跃状态，在这种状态下，大脑活动通过自发振荡（纺锤波和慢振荡）以区域特异性的方式进行时间组织。目前，这些 NREM 睡眠振荡的功能意义被解释为突触稳态和记忆巩固。
