Breathing orchestrates synchronization of sleep oscillations in the human hippocampus
Andrew Sheriff, Guangyu Zhou, Vivek Sheel Sagar, Justin B. Morgenthaler, Christopher Cyr, Katherina Hauner, Mahmoud Omidbeigi, Joshua M. Rosenow, Stephan Schuele, Gregory Lane, Christina Zelano
Abstract
Nested sleep oscillations, emerging from asynchronous states in coordinated bursts, are critical for memory consolidation. Whether these bursts emerge intrinsically or from an underlying rhythm is unknown. Here, we show a previously undescribed respiratory-driven oscillation in the human hippocampus that couples with cardinal sleep oscillations. Further, breathing promotes nesting of ripples in slow oscillations, together suggesting that respiration acts as an intrinsic rhythm to coordinate synchronization of sleep oscillations, providing a unique framework to characterize sleep-related respiratory and memory processes.