The essential role of hippocampo-cortical connections in temporal coordination of spindles and ripples

The predominant activity of slow wave sleep is cortical slow oscillations (SOs), thalamic spindles and hippocampal sharp wave ripples. While the precise temporal nesting of these rhythms was shown to be essential for memory consolidation, the coordination mechanism is poorly understood. Here we develop a minimal hippocampocortico-thalamic network that can explain the mechanism underlying the SO-spindle-ripple coupling indicating of the succession of regional neuronal interactions. Further we verify the model predictions experimentally in naturally sleeping rodents showing our simple model provides a quantitative match to several experimental observations including the nesting of ripples in the spindle troughs and larger duration but lower amplitude of the ripples co-occurring with spindles or SOs compared to the isolated ripples. The model also predicts that the coupling of ripples to SOs and spindles monotonically enhances by increasing the strength of hippocampo-cortical connections while it is stronger at intermediate values of the cortico-hippocampal projections.

Automated summary

The relationship between cortical slow oscillations, thalamic spindles, and hippocampal sharp wave ripples during slow wave sleep is crucial for memory consolidation, yet poorly understood. A minimal hippocampocortico-thalamic network model was developed to explain this mechanism, which was experimentally verified in sleeping rodents. The model predicted the nesting of ripples in spindle troughs and the longer duration but lower amplitude of ripples during spindle or slow oscillation co-occurrence.