Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany.
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2023 Dec 18;14(1):8351. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43450-5.
The beneficial effect of sleep on memory consolidation relies on the precise interplay of slow oscillations and spindles. However, whether these rhythms are orchestrated by an underlying pacemaker has remained elusive. Here, we tested the relationship between respiration, which has been shown to impact brain rhythms and cognition during wake, sleep-related oscillations and memory reactivation in humans. We re-analysed an existing dataset, where scalp electroencephalography and respiration were recorded throughout an experiment in which participants (N = 20) acquired associative memories before taking a nap. Our results reveal that respiration modulates the emergence of sleep oscillations. Specifically, slow oscillations, spindles as well as their interplay (i.e., slow-oscillation_spindle complexes) systematically increase towards inhalation peaks. Moreover, the strength of respiration - slow-oscillation_spindle coupling is linked to the extent of memory reactivation (i.e., classifier evidence in favour of the previously learned stimulus category) during slow-oscillation_spindles. Our results identify a clear association between respiration and memory consolidation in humans and highlight the role of brain-body interactions during sleep.
睡眠对记忆巩固的有益影响依赖于慢波和纺锤波的精确相互作用。然而，这些节律是否由潜在的起搏器来协调一直难以捉摸。在这里，我们测试了呼吸与睡眠相关的脑电波和记忆再激活之间的关系，在清醒时，呼吸已经被证明会影响大脑节律和认知。我们重新分析了一个现有的数据集，其中在参与者（N=20）小睡前获得联想记忆的整个过程中，记录了头皮脑电图和呼吸。我们的结果表明，呼吸调节着睡眠振荡的出现。具体来说，慢波、纺锤波及其相互作用（即慢波-纺锤波复合体）系统地朝着吸气峰增加。此外，呼吸-慢波-纺锤波耦合的强度与慢波-纺锤波期间记忆再激活的程度（即支持先前学习的刺激类别的分类器证据）相关。我们的结果在人类中确定了呼吸和记忆巩固之间的明显关联，并强调了睡眠期间脑-体相互作用的作用。
