Neurobiological Mechanisms of Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation in Rodent Models: From Neural Oscillations to Synaptic Plasticity and Behavioral Outcomes
Öz
Sleep is critical for memory consolidation, synaptic plasticity, and cognitive function. In rodents primarily rats, with complementary evidence from mice experimental studies demonstrate that distinct sleep stages, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep (including its slow-wave sleep, SWS, component) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, support different aspects of memory processing. Spindle-rich NREM sleep facilitates thalamo-cortical communication and early-stage memory integration, while SWS promotes hippocampo-cortical replay through sharp-wave ripple (SWR) events and synaptic downscaling. REM sleep, defined by hippocampal theta oscillations and cortical desynchronization, contributes to memory integration, emotional processing, and spatial learning. Sleep fragmentation disrupts these oscillatory patterns, impairs synaptic plasticity, reduces adult hippocampal neurogenesis, and alters dendritic spine morphology, leading to deficits in spatial, associative, and working memory. Coordinated transitions between NREM and REM, regulated by monoaminergic, cholinergic, and pontine circuits, have been proposed to support effective memory consolidation. This review synthesizes electrophysiological, cellular, and molecular findings from rodent studies, highlighting the interplay between sleep-stage-specific oscillations, synaptic plasticity, and cognitive outcomes, and discusses the translational relevance and limitations of extrapolating these polyphasic-sleep findings to human, monophasic sleep architecture.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Kaynakça
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