Modelling the sleeping brain: towards a neural mass model of sleep rhythms and their interactions

2019-09 ~ 2021-09

Abstract: Memory consolidation, a prominent example of higher cognitive processes, relies on two important neural phenomena: slow-wave sleep with a wealth of distinct rhythms, and cross-frequency coupling between these rhythms. Neither of these processes is, to this day, fully understood. However, according to the two-stage model of memory consolidation, the interplay between slow oscillations and sleep spindles by means of phase-amplitude coupling, as well as the interplay between sleep spindles and hippocampal sharp-wave ripples, seem to promote neural plasticity and initiate a cortical-hippocampal dialogue that leads to experience replay and, ultimately, migration of newly encoded memories to longer-lasting storage. The overall aim of this project is to shed light on the slow oscillation-spindle interplay using a biologically realistic neural mass model and, additionally, reproduce the cross-frequency phenomena.

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