In humans, some evidence suggests that there are two different types of spindles during sleep, which differ by their scalp topography and possibly some aspects of their regulation. To test for the existence of two different spindle types, we characterized the activity associated with slow (11-13 Hz) and fast (13-15 Hz) spindles, identified as discrete events during non-rapid eye movement sleep, in non-sleepdeprived human volunteers, using simultaneous electroencephalography and functional MRI. An activation pattern common to both spindle types involved the thalami, paralimbic areas (anterior cingulate and insular cortices), and superior temporal gyri. No thalamic difference was detected in the direct comparison between slow and fast spindles although some thalamic areas were preferentially activated in relation to either spindle type. Beyond the common activation pattern, the increases in cortical activity differed significantly between the two spindle types. Slow spindles were associated with increased activity in the superior frontal gyrus. In contrast, fast spindles recruited a set of cortical regions involved in sensorimotor processing, as well as the mesial frontal cortex and hippocampus. The recruitment of partially segregated cortical networks for slow and fast spindles further supports the existence of two spindle types during human non-rapid eye movement sleep, with potentially different functional significance.H uman sleep is associated with a profound modification of consciousness and the emergence of distinct sleep oscillations. In the early stages of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, electroencephalographic recordings show characteristic spindle oscillations. In humans, spindles consist of waxing-and-waning 11-to 15-Hz oscillations, lasting 0.5-3 sec. At the cellular level, spindles are associated with substantial neuronal activity. Spindles arise from cyclic inhibition of thalamo-cortical (TC) neurons by reticular thalamic neurons. Postinihibitory rebound spike bursts in TC cells entrain cortical populations in spindle oscillations (1). These neuronal mechanisms, which involve large TC populations, are thought to shape the processing of information during light NREM sleep and participate in the alteration of consciousness that characterizes this stage of sleep.Little is known on the cerebral correlates of human spindles. Early positron emission tomography studies reported a negative relationship between thalamic cerebral blood flow and the power spectrum in the spindle frequency band (2). However, the low temporal resolution of positron emission tomography did not allow for a fine-grained characterization of the cerebral correlates of human spindles. In addition, two kinds of spindles are described in humans. Slow spindles (Ͻ13 Hz) predominate over frontal, whereas fast spindles (Ͼ13 Hz) prevail over centro-parietal areas. The difference in spindle scalp topography is also reflected by profound functional differences. These two spindling activities differ by their circadian and homeostatic regul...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the cerebral correlates of motor sequence memory consolidation. Participants were scanned while training on an implicit oculomotor sequence learning task and during a single testing session taking place 30 min, 5 hr, or 24 hr later. During training, responses observed in hippocampus and striatum were linearly related to the gain in performance observed overnight, but not over the day. Responses in both structures were significantly larger at 24 hr than at 30 min or 5 hr. Additionally, the competitive interaction observed between these structures during training became cooperative overnight. These results stress the importance of both hippocampus and striatum in procedural memory consolidation. Responses in these areas during training seem to condition the overnight memory processing that is associated with a change in their functional interactions. These results show that both structures interact during motor sequence consolidation to optimize subsequent behavior.