Cellular and network dynamics of medial temporal lobe memory structures

大脑中最引人入胜的谜团之一与睡眠的目的和作用有关。睡眠代表着身体的一种“休息”状态，这是可以理解的，但认为睡眠是大脑的一种休息状态的想法与睡眠期间持续的、通常是强烈的神经活动是不一致的。一种想法是，睡眠期间的神经活动可能起到主动重新连接神经的作用，这种突触重新连接与记忆过程有关。我们的重点是需要内侧颞叶结构的记忆，如海马体(例如空间记忆)，以及在慢波睡眠中出现的特定自发活动模式的记忆增强作用。已有研究表明，慢波睡眠对改善海马依赖记忆特别重要，我们发现了一种新的形式的海马慢波活动，它可能是诱导内侧颞叶结构内和跨内侧颞叶结构的突触变化的平台。这项提案概述了一项对这种特定形式的慢波活动的研究，目的是了解它是如何产生的，它如何协调大脑大片区域的神经活动，以及它可能如何影响与记忆相关的突触变化。此外，我们将确定这种活动形式的模式、密度和协调性的变化是否确实与实际的空间记忆增强有关。这项研究对于理解睡眠在复杂记忆过程中的作用将是重要的。

One of the most captivating mysteries of the brain concerns the purpose and role of sleep. That sleep represents a "resting" state of the body is understood, but the idea that it is a resting state of the brain is inconsistent with the continuing and often intense neural activity that occurs during sleep. One idea is that neural activity during sleep may be functioning to actively rewire neural connections and that this synaptic rewiring is relevant for memory processes. Our focus is on memories that require medial temporal lobe structures like the hippocampus (e.g. spatial memory) and the memory-enhancing role of particular patterns of spontaneous activity that appear during slow-wave sleep. It has been shown that slow-wave sleep is particularly important for improving hippocampal-dependent memories and we have identified a novel form of hippocampal slow-wave activity that may be a platform for inducing synaptic changes both within and across medial temporal lobe structures. This proposal outlines a study of this specific form of slow wave activity which has the aim of understanding how it arises, how it coordinates neural activity across large areas of the brain, and how it might influence synaptic changes that are relevant for memory. In addition, we will determine if changes in the pattern, density and coordination of this form of activity are indeed relevant for actual spatial memory enhancement. This research will be important for comprehending the role of sleep in complex memory processes.