TY - JOUR
T1 - Local sleep in awake rats
AU - Vyazovskiy, Vladyslav V.
AU - Olcese, Umberto
AU - Hanlon, Erin C.
AU - Nir, Yuval
AU - Cirelli, Chiara
AU - Tononi, Giulio
N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgements This work was supported by NIMH P20 MH077967 (C.C.), NIH Director’s Pioneer award (G.T.) and AFOSR FA9550-08-1-0244 (G.T.). We thank A. Nelson, M. Dash and U. Faraguna for help with the experiments, L. Krugner-Higby for advice about surgical procedures and P. Frumento for advice on statistical procedures.
PY - 2011/4/28
Y1 - 2011/4/28
N2 - In an awake state, neurons in the cerebral cortex fire irregularly and electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings display low-amplitude, high-frequency fluctuations. During sleep, neurons oscillate between -̃ on-™ periods, when they fire as in an awake brain, and -̃ off-™ periods, when they stop firing altogether and the EEG displays high-amplitude slow waves. However, what happens to neuronal firing after a long period of being awake is not known. Here we show that in freely behaving rats after a long period in an awake state, cortical neurons can go briefly -̃ offline-™ as in sleep, accompanied by slow waves in the local EEG. Neurons often go offline in one cortical area but not in another, and during these periods of -̃ local sleep-™, the incidence of which increases with the duration of the awake state, rats are active and display an -̃ awake-™ EEG. However, they are progressively impaired in a sugar pellet reaching task. Thus, although both the EEG and behaviour indicate wakefulness, local populations of neurons in the cortex may be falling asleep, with negative consequences for performance.
AB - In an awake state, neurons in the cerebral cortex fire irregularly and electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings display low-amplitude, high-frequency fluctuations. During sleep, neurons oscillate between -̃ on-™ periods, when they fire as in an awake brain, and -̃ off-™ periods, when they stop firing altogether and the EEG displays high-amplitude slow waves. However, what happens to neuronal firing after a long period of being awake is not known. Here we show that in freely behaving rats after a long period in an awake state, cortical neurons can go briefly -̃ offline-™ as in sleep, accompanied by slow waves in the local EEG. Neurons often go offline in one cortical area but not in another, and during these periods of -̃ local sleep-™, the incidence of which increases with the duration of the awake state, rats are active and display an -̃ awake-™ EEG. However, they are progressively impaired in a sugar pellet reaching task. Thus, although both the EEG and behaviour indicate wakefulness, local populations of neurons in the cortex may be falling asleep, with negative consequences for performance.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79953771228&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10009
DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10009
M3 - مقالة
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 472
SP - 443
EP - 447
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7344
ER -