The role of sleep oscillations in temporal lobe organization

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Even when we sleep, the brain is not at rest. On the contrary, during sleep, the brain is full of synchronized neural activity that takes the shape of slow oscillations. These oscillations have long been associated with helping memories to strengthen, or 'consolidate', yet the brain regions involved during slow waves and the processing they undergo is still unresolved. Neurons in the neocortex that were active during an experience 'reactivate' during these sleep oscillations, suggesting one way of strengthening a memory trace. Although this phenomenon was first seen in the rat hippocampus - a structure that helps in forming new memories, I went on to show that reactivation occurs as a synchronized process throughout large, separated regions of the neocortex. This was also the first demonstration of memory trace reactivation in primates, an important prerequisite if reactivation underlies the consolidation of memories in humans.