In a remarkable revelation, a new Northwestern Medicine study shows that, much like a conductor synchronizing various instruments in an orchestra to create a symphony, breathing coordinates hippocampal brain waves to enhance memory while we sleep.
This marks the first instance in humans where breathing rhythms during sleep have been associated with specific hippocampal brain waves – known as slow waves, spindles, and ripples. Scientists were already aware that these waves were linked to memory, yet the driving force behind their occurrence remained a mystery.
“To strengthen memories, three special neural oscillations emerge and synchronize in the hippocampus during sleep, and they were previously thought to appear and disappear at random intervals. We’ve now discovered that they are coordinated by breathing rhythms,” stated Christina Zelano, the senior study author and a professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Northwestern scientists found that hippocampal oscillations happen at precise points within the breathing cycle, indicating that breathing serves as a crucial rhythm for the proper consolidation of memory during sleep.
“Memory consolidation depends on the orchestration of brain waves during sleep, and we’ve demonstrated that this process is closely timed by breathing,” explained corresponding author Andrew Sheriff, a postdoctoral student in Zelano’s lab.
The study is set to be published on December 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
These findings carry significant implications for sleep-disordered breathing conditions, such as sleep apnea, which has been linked to poor memory consolidation.
“We’ve all experienced having better memories after a good night’s sleep. This was even noted as far back as ancient Rome, when the scholar Quintillion wrote about the ‘curious fact’ that ‘the interval of a single night will greatly increase the strength of the memory. ’ What he was describing is what we now call memory consolidation, which is achieved through the precisely tuned coordination of different brain waves in the hippocampus,” the study authors said.
“While you’re sleeping, your brain is actively replaying the experiences you had during the day,” Sheriff noted.
Sheriff recounted an experience after returning from a conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he had to familiarize himself with a new city. “The hippocampus plays a major role in forming a map of a new area. I would wake up and feel that I had a better understanding of the city around me. That was facilitated by the oscillations that occurred during my sleep, which we found are coordinated by breathing,” he said.
Sheriff emphasized that people with disrupted breathing during sleep should seek treatment.
“When you don’t get enough sleep, your brain suffers, your cognition suffers, and you feel foggy. We also know that sleep-disordered breathing is associated with stroke, dementia, and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease,” he said.
“If you listen to someone breathing, you might be able to tell when they are asleep because breathing is paced differently when you’re sleeping. One reason for this could be that breathing is performing a vital task: coordinating brain waves related to memory,” Sheriff added.
The study is titled “Breathing orchestrates synchronization of sleep oscillations in the human hippocampus.”
Other Northwestern authors include Guangyu Zhou, Justin Morgenthaler, Christopher Cyr, Katherina K. Hauner, Mahmoud Omidbeigi, Joshua Rosenow, Stephan Schuele, and Gregory Lane.
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