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  • HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
      • ELECTROTHERAPY; MAGNETOTHERAPY; RADIATION THERAPY (measurement of bio-electric currents A61B; electrosurgical apparatus or circuits therefor A61B17/36; physical therapy arrangements in general A61H; anaesthetic apparatus in general A61M; incandescent lamps H01K; infra-red radiators for heating H05B)
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Keywords
CORTICAL PLASTICITY, TRASCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION, STROKE, ALZHEIMER DISEASE, LONG-TERM POTENZIATION (LTP), SLEEP, SYNAPTIC HOMEOSTASIS, CORTICAL CONNECTIVITY, MOTOR CORTEX

Plasticity of cortical networks in normal human and in neurological patients: The influence on local sleep processes

Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"
Abstract
A recently formulated hypothesis, the Synaptic Homeostasis Hypothesis links sleep with synaptic homeostasis, argueing that the specific function of sleep is to downscale the weight of cortical synapses (Tononi and Cirelli, 2006). Among others, the hypothesis states that during wakefulness, learning and plasticity processes, such as long-term potentiation (LTP) bring to a net increment of synaptic weight in several cortical circuits. Globally, the strength of intracortical connections reaches a maximum toward the end of the day.
In fact, several lines of evidence support the notion that plastic changes occurring during wakefulness in human brain could be directly linked to the extent of synaptic potentiation mediated by mechanisms of LTP in specific neural networks. The expression of this synaptic reorganization during sleep, mainly during slow-wave sleep (SWS), should allow an active synaptic downscaling, essential for the appropriate cellular functions and associated to improvements in performances after a night-sleep. In other words, an increased LTP during wakefulness would need a synaptic homeostasis during sleep, expressed by an increased amount of slow-wave activity (SWA). This homeostasis also has a local component, that is specific brain areas involved in synaptic potentiation should show a higher amount of SWA during subsequent sleep than other areas; this has been clearly shown by a recent experiment, published in Nature by the director of Unit III (Huber et >>>

Principal Investigator
Luigi De Gennaro Università degli Studi di ROMA "La Sapienza"
Research Objectives
Several lines of evidence support the notion that plastic changes occurring during wakefulness in human brain could be directly linked to the extent of synaptic potentiation mediated by mechanisms of long-term potentiation (LTP) in specific neural networks. The expression of this synaptic reorganization during sleep, mainly during slow-wave sleep (SWS), should allow an active synaptic downscaling, essential for the appropriate cellular functions and associated to improvements in performances after a night-sleep (Tononi & Cirelli, 2003; Tononi & Cirelli, 2006). In other words, an increased LTP during wakefulness would need a synaptic homeostasis during sleep, expressed by an increased amount of slow-wave activity (SWA). As shown by a recent experiment on Nature by the scientific director of Unit III, this homeostasis also has a local component, that is specific brain areas involved in synaptic potentiation should show a higher amount of SWA during subsequent sleep than other areas (Huber et al., 2004).
In the theorethical framework of this Synaptic Homeostasis Hypothesis (Tononi e Cirelli, 2006), some specific predictions on normal human sleep and on some neurological disorders will be tested.
1) Effect of LTP-like plastic changes in human brain on local homeostasis of slow-wave activity (SWA) during sleep (Unit I –De Gennaro-).
The hypothesis that local homeostasis of SWA is direct consequence of LTP-like plastic changes in humans will be >>>

Timescale
24 months
National and international background
General background
For almost a century, several studies showed beneficial effects of sleep on memory function in animals and humans for different types of learning materials (Jenkins & Dallenbach, 1924; Smith, 1995; Peigneux et al., 2001; Walker & Stickgold, 2006). Recent studies in molecular genetics, neurophysiology, cognitive and behavioral neuroscience have strengthened the idea that sleep may play an important role in learning and memory, although the extent of this role remains hostly debated (Siegel, 2001; Stickgold & Walker, 2005; Vertes & Siegel, 2005). Undoubtedly the reason this issue continues to be ‘hot’ in the sleep field, and possibly in the neurosciences in general, is that it speaks both to the function of sleep and to the nature of memory processing.
In fact, functions of human sleep remain unclear. During much of sleep, cortical neurons undergo slow oscillations in membrane potential, which appear in electroencephalograms (EEG) as slow wave activity (SWA) of <4.5 Hz (Steriade, 2000). SWA is the most pronounced EEG feature of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, is also a reliable predictor of sleep intensity. An important feature of slow-wave activity during sleep is that it increases as a function of previous wakefulness, and it gradually decreases in the course of sleep (Borbèly & Achermann, 2000). This homeostatic regulation suggests that slow-wave activity may be linked to some restorative >>>