SleepWell Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 9, Helsinki 00014, Finland.
SleepWell Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 9, Helsinki 00014, Finland.
Behav Brain Res. 2022 Jun 25;428:113889. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113889. Epub 2022 Apr 9.
During sleep, memories are consolidated via oscillatory events that occur in temporal and phasic synchrony. Several studies show that sleep spindles peaking close to the depolarized positive peaks of slow oscillations (SO) associate with better retention of memories. The exact timing of this synchrony presumably depends on the properties of the related neural network that, in turn, is affected by certain genetic variants associated with brain development and function. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met and Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met are repeatedly reported to implicate the structure and function of prefrontal and hippocampal areas as well as molecular events promoting synaptic plasticity. In this study, we examined with a community-based sample of 153 adolescents (~17 years) whether these variants (1) affected the coupling properties between frontal SOs and spindles and (2) moderated the association between SO-spindle coupling and overnight recognition accuracy. We found SO-upstate-coupled fast (> 13 Hz) sleep spindles to associate with better recognition in the whole sample. Additionally, Val66Met moderated this association such that SO-spindle coupling was predictive of memory outcome only in those homozygous to Val alleles but not in Met carriers. Memory outcome was not associated with the SO-coupling properties of slow spindles nor affected by the interaction between Val158Met and coupling measures. Finally, in the whole sample we found that SO-upstate-coupled fast spindles were more strongly associated with the recognition of positive, relative to neutral, pictures. In conclusion, precise coupling of SOs and fast spindles associates with overnight recognition accuracy and this association is moderated by BDNF Val66Met.
在睡眠过程中，记忆通过在时间和相位上同步发生的振荡事件得到巩固。几项研究表明，在慢波（SO）去极化正峰附近达到峰值的睡眠梭形波与更好的记忆保留有关。这种同步的精确时间可能取决于相关神经网络的特性，而相关神经网络又受到与大脑发育和功能相关的某些遗传变异的影响。脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）Val66Met 和儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶（COMT）Val158Met 反复被报道涉及前额叶和海马区的结构和功能以及促进突触可塑性的分子事件。在这项研究中，我们使用基于社区的 153 名青少年（约 17 岁）样本检查了这些变体：（1）是否影响额 SO 与纺锤波之间的耦合特性；（2）是否调节 SO-纺锤波耦合与夜间识别准确性之间的关系。我们发现，在整个样本中，SO 状态相关的快速（>13Hz）睡眠纺锤波与更好的识别相关。此外，Val66Met 调节了这种关联，使得 SO-纺锤波耦合仅在 Val 等位基因纯合的个体中预测记忆结果，而不是在 Met 携带者中。记忆结果与慢纺锤波的 SO 耦合特性无关，也不受 Val158Met 与耦合测量之间相互作用的影响。最后，在整个样本中，我们发现 SO 状态相关的快速纺锤波与正性、相对中性图片的识别更为相关。总之，SO 和快速纺锤波的精确耦合与夜间识别准确性相关，这种关联受 BDNF Val66Met 的调节。
