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

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…

• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: S10-RR023043, P41-EB015896, S10-OD010759
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  National Institute of Mental Health

  Awards: R01MH048832, R00-MH111748, R01MH111419, R01-MH111438
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  National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

  Award: R21NS106706
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  National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

  Awards: R01EB024343, R01EB019437