Large-Scale Structure and Individual Fingerprints of Locally Coupled Sleep Oscillations

Abstract

The temporal coordination of slow oscillations and sleep spindles is believed to underlie processes of sleep-dependent memory consolidation and reorganization. Accumulating evidence of the predominantly local expression of these individual oscillatory rhythms suggests that their interaction may have a similar local component. However, it is unclear whether local coupling holds uniformly across the cortex, and whether and how these dynamics differ between fast and slow spindles, and sleep stages. Moreover, substantial individual variability in the expression of both spindles and slow oscillations raise the possibility that their cross-frequency interactions show similar individual differences. Using two nights of multi-channel electroencephalography recordings from 24 healthy individuals, we characterized the topography of slow oscillation-spindle coupling. We found that locally coupled oscillations occur over widespread cortical areas, but that their dynamics vary with spindle class, sleep stage, and location. Moreover, the phase of the slow oscillation cycle at which spindles were expressed differed markedly across individuals but was stable across nights. However, individual variability of coupling phase was not correlated with overnight memory change. These findings both add an important spatial aspect to our understanding of the temporal coupling of sleep oscillations and demonstrate the heterogeneity of coupling dynamics, which must be taken into account when formulating mechanistic accounts of sleep-related memory processing.