Sleep spindles are major oscillatory components of Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep, reflecting hyperpolarization-rebound sequences of thalamocortical neurons. Reports suggest a link between sleep spindles and several forms of high-frequency oscillations which are considered as expressions of pathological off-line neural plasticity in the central nervous system. Here we investigated the relationship between thalamic sleep spindles and ripples in the anterior and mediodorsal nuclei (ANT and MD) of epilepsy patients. Whole-night LFP from the ANT and MD were co-registered with scalp EEG/polysomnography by using externalized leads in 15 epilepsy patients undergoing a Deep Brain Stimulation protocol. Slow (~12 Hz) and fast (~14 Hz) sleep spindles were present in the human ANT and MD and roughly, 20% of them were associated with ripples. Ripple-associated thalamic sleep spindles were characterized by longer duration and exceeded pure spindles in terms of spindle power as indicated by time-frequency analysis. Furthermore, ripple amplitude was modulated by the phase of sleep spindles within both thalamic nuclei. No signs of pathological processes were correlated with measures of ripple and spindle association, furthermore, the density of ripple-associated sleep spindles in the ANT showed a positive correlation with verbal comprehension. Our findings indicate the involvement of the human thalamus in coalescent spindle-ripple oscillations of NREM sleep.

中文翻译：

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人类前丘脑和内侧丘脑的睡眠纺锤波和波纹之间的时间关联

睡眠纺锤波是非快速眼动 (NREM) 睡眠的主要振荡成分，反映丘脑皮​​质神经元的超极化反弹序列。报告表明睡眠纺锤波与几种形式的高频振荡之间存在联系，这些高频振荡被认为是中枢神经系统病理性离线神经可塑性的表现。在这里，我们研究了癫痫患者的丘脑睡眠纺锤波与前核和中背核（ANT 和 MD）波纹之间的关系。通过使用 15 名接受深部脑刺激方案的癫痫患者的外部导联，将来自 ANT 和 MD 的整夜 LFP 与头皮脑电图/多导睡眠图共同记录。人类 ANT 和 MD 中存在慢速 (~12 Hz) 和快速 (~14 Hz) 睡眠纺锤波，其中约 20% 与波纹相关。时频分析表明，纹波相关丘脑睡眠纺锤波的特点是持续时间较长，并且在纺锤波功率方面超过纯纺锤波。此外，纹波幅度受到两个丘脑核内睡眠纺锤体相位的调节。没有病理过程的迹象与纹波和纺锤体关联的测量相关，此外，ANT 中纹波相关的睡眠纺锤体的密度与言语理解呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，人类丘脑参与了 NREM 睡眠的联合纺锤体波纹振荡。