Journal Article

Coupled electrophysiological, hemodynamic, and cerebrospinal fluid oscillations in human sleep

Bonmassar, Giorgio, Fultz, Nina E., Lewis, Laura D., Polimeni, Jonathan R., Setsompop, Kawin, Rosen, Bruce R., Stickgold, Robert A.

2019

Overview

Sleep is essential for both cognition and maintenance of healthy brain function. Slow waves in neural activity contribute to memory consolidation, whereas cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) clears metabolic waste products from the brain. Whether these two processes are related is not known. We used accelerated neuroimaging to measure physiological and neural dynamics in the human brain. We discovered a coherent pattern of oscillating electrophysiological, hemodynamic, and CSF dynamics that appears during non–rapid eye movement sleep. Neural slow waves are followed by hemodynamic oscillations, which in turn are coupled to CSF flow. These results demonstrate that the sleeping brain exhibits waves of CSF flow on a macroscopic scale, and these CSF dynamics are interlinked with neural and hemodynamic rhythms.

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science,The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subject: Adult / Blood volume / Brain / Brain - blood supply / Brain - physiology / Brain mapping / Brain Waves - physiology / Cerebrospinal fluid / Cerebrospinal Fluid - physiology / Cerebrovascular Circulation / Cognition / Computational fluid dynamics / Consolidation / Delta Rhythm / EEG / Electroencephalography / Eye movements / Female / Fluid dynamics / Functional magnetic resonance imaging / Hemodynamics / Human motion / Humans / Hydrodynamics / Inflow / Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Maintenance / Male / Medical imaging / Memory / Metabolic wastes / Metabolism / Motor Reactions / Neuroimaging / Neurology / NREM sleep / Oscillations / REM sleep / Sleep / Sleep - physiology / Young Adult