Publication Date:
2009-05-23
Description:
The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a mainstay of clinical neurology and is tightly correlated with brain function, but the specific currents generating human EEG elements remain poorly specified because of a lack of microphysiological recordings. The largest event in healthy human EEGs is the K-complex (KC), which occurs in slow-wave sleep. Here, we show that KCs are generated in widespread cortical areas by outward dendritic currents in the middle and upper cortical layers, accompanied by decreased broadband EEG power and decreased neuronal firing, which demonstrate a steep decline in network activity. Thus, KCs are isolated "down-states," a fundamental cortico-thalamic processing mode already characterized in animals. This correspondence is compatible with proposed contributions of the KC to sleep preservation and memory consolidation.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3715654/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3715654/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cash, Sydney S -- Halgren, Eric -- Dehghani, Nima -- Rossetti, Andrea O -- Thesen, Thomas -- Wang, Chunmao -- Devinsky, Orrin -- Kuzniecky, Ruben -- Doyle, Werner -- Madsen, Joseph R -- Bromfield, Edward -- Eross, Lorand -- Halasz, Peter -- Karmos, George -- Csercsa, Richard -- Wittner, Lucia -- Ulbert, Istvan -- NS18741/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS44623/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- R01 EB009282/EB/NIBIB NIH HHS/ -- R01 NS018741/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 May 22;324(5930):1084-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1169626.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Neurology, Epilepsy Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. scash@partners.org〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19461004" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Adolescent
;
Adult
;
Cerebral Cortex/*physiology
;
Electroencephalography
;
*Electrophysiological Phenomena
;
Epilepsy/physiopathology
;
Female
;
Humans
;
Memory
;
Middle Aged
;
Sleep Stages/*physiology
;
Young Adult
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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