Sharp waves and ripples (SPW-R), also called sharp wave ripples (SWR), are oscillatory patterns produced by extremely synchronized activity of neurons in the mammalian

hippocampus The hippocampus (: hippocampi; via Latin from Ancient Greek, Greek , 'seahorse'), also hippocampus proper, is a major component of the brain of humans and many other vertebrates. In the human brain the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, and the ...

and neighboring regions which occur spontaneously in idle waking states or during NREM sleep. They can be observed with a variety of electrophysiological methods such as field recordings or

EEG Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The bio signals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neoc ...

. They are composed of large amplitude sharp waves in

local field potential Local field potentials (LFP) are transient electrical signals generated in nerves and other tissues by the summed and synchronous electrical activity of the individual cells (e.g. neurons) in that tissue. LFP are "extracellular" signals, meaning t ...

and produced by thousands of neurons firing together within a 30–100 ms window. Within this broad time window,

pyramidal cells Pyramidal cells, or pyramidal neurons, are a type of multipolar neuron found in areas of the brain including the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala. Pyramidal cells are the primary excitation units of the mammalian prefrontal cort ...

fire only at specific times set by fast spiking GABAergic interneurons. The fast rhythm of inhibition (150-200 Hz) synchronizes the firing of active pyramidal cells, each of which only fires one or two

action potentials An action potential (also known as a nerve impulse or "spike" when in a neuron) is a series of quick changes in voltage across a cell membrane. An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell rapidly rises and falls. ...

exactly between the inhibitory peaks, collectively generating the ripple pattern. SWRs have been extensively characterized by György Buzsáki and have been shown to be involved in

memory consolidation Memory consolidation is a category of processes that stabilize a memory trace after its initial acquisition. A memory trace is a change in the nervous system caused by memorizing something. Consolidation is distinguished into two specific processe ...

in NREM sleep. Neuronal firing sequences acquired during wakefulness are replayed during SWRs.

History and background

Neuronal oscillations Neural oscillations, or brainwaves, are rhythmic or repetitive patterns of neural activity in the central nervous system. Neural tissue can generate oscillatory activity in many ways, driven either by mechanisms within individual neurons or by ...

are important components of neuroscience research. During the last two decades, hippocampal oscillations have been a major focus in the research of neuronal oscillations. Among different oscillations present in the brain, SWRs are the first population activity that start in the developing hippocampus. Originally, these large waves were observed by Cornelius Vanderwolf in 1969. John O'Keefe investigated SWRs in 1978 while studying the spatial memory of rats. György Buzsáki and his collaborators studied and characterized SWRs in further detail and described their physiological functions and role in different states of the animal. These patterns are large amplitude, aperiodic recurrent oscillations occurring in the apical dendritic layer of the CA1 regions of the hippocampus. Sharp waves are followed by synchronous fast field oscillations (140–200 Hz frequency), named ripples. Features of these oscillations provided evidences for their role in inducing synaptic plasticity and memory consolidation. Among these features are their widespread effect on the population of neurons in the hippocampus, and the experience-related activity of participating neurons. Studies have shown that elimination of SWRs by electrical stimulation interfered with the ability of rats to recall spatial memories. These features support functional role of sharp waves and ripples in memory consolidation.

Hippocampal formation

Structures

Circuit

The trisynaptic loop, as the main circuit of the hippocampus responsible for information transfer between the hippocampus and the cortex, is also the circuit producing SWRs. This circuit provides the pathway by which SWRs affect the cortical areas, and also receive inputs from them. Consequently, this loop is shown to be the pathway responsible for conversion of

short-term memory Short-term memory (or "primary" or "active memory") is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for a short interval. For example, short-term memory holds a phone number that has just been recit ...

long-term memory Long-term memory (LTM) is the stage of the Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model in which informative knowledge is held indefinitely. It is defined in contrast to sensory memory, the initial stage, and short-term or working memory, the second stage ...

. The trisynaptic loop of the hippocampus is one of the most thoroughly studied circuits for

long-term potentiation In neuroscience, long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity. These are patterns of synaptic activity that produce a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between two neuron ...

Participant neuronal populations

Emergence of these self-organized hippocampal events are dependent on interactions between

and different types of the

interneurons Interneurons (also called internuncial neurons, association neurons, connector neurons, or intermediate neurons) are neurons that are not specifically motor neurons or sensory neurons. Interneurons are the central nodes of neural circuits, ena ...

in this circuit. Pyramidal cells of CA3 and CA1 are important in generating these waves, and they affect the

subiculum The subiculum (Latin for "support") also known as the subicular complex, or subicular cortex, is the most inferior component of the hippocampal formation. It lies between the entorhinal cortex and the CA1 hippocampal subfield. The subicular com ...

parasubiculum In the rodent, the parasubiculum is a retrohippocampal isocortical structure, and a major component of the subicular complex. It receives numerous subcortical and cortical inputs, and sends major projections to the superficial layers of the ento ...

entorhinal cortex The entorhinal cortex (EC) is an area of the brain's allocortex, located in the medial temporal lobe, whose functions include being a widespread network hub for memory, navigation, and the perception of time.Integrating time from experience in t ...

, and ultimately neurons of the neocortex. During SWRs, which last approximately 100 milliseconds, 50,000–100,000 neurons discharge in synchrony, making SWRs the most synchronous event in the brain. An important concept about the neuronal populations participating in these events is the fact that they are experience-dependent. Sequences that have been active during the animal's activity are the ones participating in SWRs. Activity naturally spreads along the pathways that have stronger synapses. This is one of the features of SWRs providing evidence for their role in memory consolidation.

Network mechanisms of generation

Self-emergent network activity

Population bursts of

in the CA3 region of the hippocampus via CA3 collaterals cause depolarization of pyramidal cells in the dendritic layer of the CA1 which give rise to extracellular negative waves – the sharp waves – followed by fast ripples. Discharge of pyramidal cells of CA3 region also activates the

GABAergic In molecular biology and physiology, something is GABAergic or GABAnergic if it pertains to or affects the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). For example, a synapse is GABAergic if it uses GABA as its neurotransmitter, and a GABAergic ...

interneurons. Sparse firing of CA1 pyramidal cells and in-phase inhibition from the activated interneurons, give rise to

high frequency High frequency (HF) is the ITU designation for the band of radio waves with frequency between 3 and 30 megahertz (MHz). It is also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to ten decameters (ten to one ...

(200 Hz) network oscillations, which are the ripples. The rhythmic activity is exported to CA1 and eventually reaches the target population of parahippocampal structures.

Effects of neocortical inputs

In spite of the self-emergent nature of the SWRs, their activity could be altered by inputs from the

neocortex The neocortex, also called the neopallium, isocortex, or the six-layered cortex, is a set of layers of the mammalian cerebral cortex involved in higher-order brain functions such as sensory perception, cognition, generation of motor commands, ...

via the trisynaptic loop to the hippocampus. Activity of the neocortex during slow wave sleep determines inputs to the hippocampus; thalamocortical sleep spindles and

delta waves Delta waves are high amplitude neural oscillations with a frequency between 0.5 and 4 hertz. Delta waves, like other brain waves, can be recorded with electroencephalography (EEG) and are usually associated with the deep stage 3 of NREM sleep, ...

are the sleep patterns of the neocortex. These inputs contribute to the selection of different neuronal assemblies for initiation of SWRs, and affect the timing of the SWRs. Different thalamocortical neuronal assemblies give rise to sleep spindles, and these cell assemblies affect the burst initiator for the sharp waves. In this manner, thalamocortical inputs affect the content of the SWRs going to neocortex.

Memory consolidation

Sharp waves and associated ripples are present in the mammalian brains of the species that have been investigated for this purpose, including mice, rats, rabbits, monkeys and humans. In all of these species, they have been shown primarily to be involved in consolidation of recently acquired memories during the immobility and

slow-wave sleep Slow-wave sleep (SWS), often referred to as deep sleep, is the third stage of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM), where electroencephalography activity is characterised by slow delta waves. Slow-wave sleep usually lasts between 70 and 90 mi ...

. Characteristics of these oscillations, such as having experience dependent neuronal content, being affected by the cortical input, and reactivating neocortical pathways formed through recent experiences, provides evidences for their role in

. Besides, some direct evidences for their role come from studies, investigating effects of their removal. Animal studies indicated that depletion of ripple activity by electrical stimulation, would impair formation of new memories in rats. Furthermore, in spatially non-demanding tasks, such as passive exploration, optogenetic disruption of SWR events interferes with the stabilisation of the newly formed hippocampal place cell code (ref, but see ref). As for humans, what is currently suspected is that the hippocampus as a whole is important for some forms of memory consolidation such as declarative and spatial memories. However, clear evidence for the role of SWR events in memory consolidation in the hippocampus of humans is still missing.

Two-stage model of memory

Based on the research findings about SWRs, in 1989 an influential two-stage model of memory proposed by Buzsáki, that subsequent evidences supported it. Based on this model initial memories of the events are formed during the acquisition and reinforced during replay. Acquisition occurs by

theta Theta (, ) uppercase Θ or ; lowercase θ or ; ''thē̂ta'' ; Modern: ''thī́ta'' ) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth 𐤈. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 9. Gree ...

and

gamma Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...

waves activating a neuronal pathway for initial formation of the memory. Later this pathway would get replayed following the SPW-Rs propagation to neocortex. Neuronal sequences during replay happen in a faster rate and are in both forward and reverse direction of the initial formation.

Ripples and fast gamma

In spite of the fact that hippocampal ripples (140–220 Hz) and fast gamma (90–150 Hz) oscillations have similar mechanisms of generation, they are two distinct patterns in the hippocampus. They are both produced as the response of the CA1 region to inputs from the CA3 region. Ripples are only present when theta waves are relatively absent during sharp waves, whereas fast gamma waves occur during theta waves and sharp waves. The magnitude and frequency of both ripples and fast gamma patterns are dependent on the magnitude of hippocampal sharp waves. Stronger excitation from sharp waves results in ripple oscillations, whereas weaker stimulations generate fast gamma patterns. Besides they are shown to be region dependent, ripples that are the fastest oscillations are present in the CA1 region pyramidal cells while gamma oscillations dominate in CA3 region and parahippocampal structures.

Disease state

Epilepsy

In addition to ongoing research on the role of SWR complexes in memory consolidation and neuronal plasticity, another major area of the attention is their role in development of epilepsy. One of the deviations from normal activity is fast ripples. Fast ripples are a pathologic pattern that emerges from the physiologic ripples. These fast ripples are field potentials of hypersynchronous bursting of excitatory neurons

at frequencies between 250 and 600 Hz. Fast ripples in the hippocampus are considered as pathologic patterns directly associated with

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

, but they appear during both physiological and pathological states in neocortex. Although the underlying physiology and identifying contributions of fast ripples in generation of

seizures A seizure is a sudden, brief disruption of brain activity caused by abnormal, excessive, or synchronous neuronal firing. Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, o ...

are still under investigation, some studies suggest that fast ripples could be used as a

biomarker In biomedical contexts, a biomarker, or biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition. Biomarkers are often measured and evaluated using blood, urine, or soft tissues to examine normal biological processes, ...

of epileptogenic tissues.

References

External links

Scholarpedia - Hippocampus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp wave-ripple complexes Neurophysiology