Author response: Rotating waves during human sleep spindles organize global patterns of activity that repeat precisely through the night

1 | 2 | 2020 4E Cognition: Aesthetics, Ecology and Beyond

“…In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in so-called travelling waves, or travelling oscillations: emergent and transient oscillatory events that traverse the brain in different directions and at different speeds, and which are believed to constitute another rhythmic layer in the coordination and integration of cognitive processes by modulating neuronal excitability and shaping responses to external inputs. For example, Muller et al (2016) have found circular patterns that repeat over hours as we sleep, in the form of transient rotating waves at 11-15 Hz originating in the thalamus. These travel- ling waves synchronize activity in the cortex and arguably play a role in memory consolidation.…”