Neuron
Volume 61, Issue 4, 26 February 2009, Pages 587-596
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Article
State-Dependent Spike-Timing Relationships between Hippocampal and Prefrontal Circuits during Sleep

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Summary

Cortico-hippocampal interactions during sleep are believed to reorganize neural circuits in support of memory consolidation. However, spike-timing relationships across cortico-hippocampal networks—key determinants of synaptic changes—are poorly understood. Here we show that cells in prefrontal cortex fire consistently within 100 ms after hippocampal cells in naturally sleeping animals. This provides evidence at the single cell-pair level for highly consistent directional interactions between these areas within the window of plasticity. Moreover, these interactions are state dependent: they are driven by hippocampal sharp-wave/ripple (SWR) bursts in slow-wave sleep (SWS) and are sharply reduced during REM sleep. Finally, prefrontal responses are nonlinear: as the strength of hippocampal bursts rises, short-latency prefrontal responses are augmented by increased spindle band activity and a secondary peak ∼100 ms later. These findings suggest that SWR events are atomic units of hippocampal-prefrontal communication during SWS and that the coupling between these areas is highly attenuated during REM sleep.

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