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The Journal of Neuroscience, February 15, 2002, 22(4):1373-1384
Hippocampal Population Activity during the Small-Amplitude
Irregular Activity State in the Rat
Beata
Jarosiewicz1,
Bruce L.
McNaughton2, and
William E.
Skaggs1
1 Department of Neuroscience and Center for the Neural
Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
15260, and 2 Department of Psychology and Arizona Research
Laboratories, Division of Neural Systems, Memory, and Aging, University
of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724
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ABSTRACT |
The sleeping rat cycles between two well-characterized
physiological states, slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid-eye-movement sleep (REM), often identified by the presence of large-amplitude irregular activity (LIA) and theta activity, respectively, in the
hippocampal EEG. Inspection of the activity of ensembles of hippocampal
CA1 complex-spike cells along with the EEG reveals the presence of a
third physiological state within SWS. We characterize the hippocampal
EEG and population activity of this third state relative to theta
activity and LIA, its incidence relative to REM and LIA, and the
functional correlates of its population activity. This state occurs
repeatedly within stretches of SWS, occupying ~33% of SWS and
~20% of total sleep, and it follows nearly every REM episode;
however, it never occurs just before a REM episode. The EEG during this
state becomes low in amplitude for a few seconds, probably
corresponding to "small-amplitude irregular activity" (SIA)
described in the literature; we will call its manifestation during
sleep "S-SIA." During S-SIA, a small subset of cells becomes active, whereas the rest remain nearly silent, with the same subset of
cells active across long sequences of S-SIA episodes. These cells are
physiologically indistinguishable from ordinary complex-spike cells;
thus, the question arises as to whether they have any special functional correlates. Indeed, many of these cells are found to have
place fields encompassing the location where the rat sleeps, raising
the possibility that S-SIA is a state of increased alertness in which
the animal's location in the environment is represented in the brain.
Key words:
sleep; EEG; small-amplitude irregular activity; SIA; hippocampus; place cell; ensemble; CA1; low-amplitude sleep; phase
d'activation transitoire; microarousal; rat
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INTRODUCTION |
The sleeping rat cycles between two
well-characterized physiological states, slow-wave sleep (SWS) and
rapid-eye-movement sleep (REM), often defined by their cortical and
hippocampal EEG (for review, see O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978 ; Gottesmann,
1992 ; and Skaggs and McNaughton, 1998 ). During SWS and drowsy waking
states, the EEG at the level of the hippocampal fissure exhibits
predominantly large-amplitude waves with power distributed across a
broad range of frequencies, often called "large-amplitude irregular
activity" (LIA), punctuated by fluctuations called "sharp waves"
(Buzsáki, 1986 ). The population activity of CA1 pyramidal cells
in LIA is generally diffuse, with large increases in activity during
sharp waves (Buzsáki et al., 1992 ). The neocortex exhibits
large-amplitude, slow waves with occasional brief 7-14 Hz oscillations
called "spindles" (Gottesmann, 1964 , 1992 ; Steriade et al., 1993 ;
McCormick and Bal, 1997 ; Siapas and Wilson, 1998 ). In REM,
corresponding in humans to dream sleep (Dement and Kleitman, 1957a ,b ),
as well as in active waking states, the rat hippocampal EEG exhibits
strong 7-8 Hz rhythmicity, called "theta activity," and the
neocortical EEG exhibits small-amplitude, fast ("desynchronized")
activity (Green and Arduini, 1954 ; Gottesmann, 1964 , 1992 ; Vanderwolf, 1969 ; Vanderwolf et al., 1975 ; O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978 ). CA1
population activity during REM also resembles that seen during awake
exploration (Skaggs and McNaughton, 1998 ; Louie and Wilson, 2001 ), in
that individual pyramidal cells show occasional brief periods of
activity surrounded by virtual silence.
The present study arises from observations that a third physiological
state, differing from both theta activity and LIA, is revealed when
hippocampal population activity patterns are inspected along with the
hippocampal EEG of the sleeping rat. During this state, the EEG becomes
very low in amplitude, and a small subset of cells becomes active while
the rest of the cells remain nearly silent; the same cells are usually
active across long sequences of such episodes. This state occurs
repeatedly within periods of SWS and immediately after every REM
episode, but never just before REM. The EEG appears to be similar to a
pattern that has been called "low-amplitude irregular activity"
(Pickenhain and Klingberg, 1967 ), also called "small-amplitude
irregular activity" (SIA) (Vanderwolf, 1971 ; Whishaw, 1972 ; for
review, see O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978 ). These early studies reported the
presence of SIA in rats on occasions when an ongoing movement was
abruptly stopped or when they suddenly changed from a resting or
sleeping state to an alert state (as indicated by neocortical
desynchronization) without moving. Similar EEG states have also been
reported in the sleeping rat, called "arousal-like periods"
(Roldán et al., 1963 ) or "low-amplitude sleep" (Bergmann et
al., 1987 ). Because the hippocampal physiology of the sleep state we
observe is similar to that of SIA, but to distinguish the general
physiological state from its more specific manifestation during sleep,
we will refer to the episodes that occur during sleep as
"Sleep-SIA" (S-SIA).
Our aim is to characterize the EEG, hippocampal population activity,
and incidence of S-SIA relative to REM and LIA and to explore the
possible functional significance of the cells active in S-SIA. Many
hippocampal pyramidal cells have strong spatial correlates; each
hippocampal "place cell" fires rapidly only when the rat is in a
particular delimited portion of its environment, called its "place
field" (O'Keefe and Dostrovsky, 1971 ; O'Keefe, 1976 ; for review,
see O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978 ). The possibility that S-SIA is a state of
heightened arousal suggests a possible functional correlate of the
cells active during S-SIA: they might be cells with place fields in the
current location of the rat. The correspondence between the cells
active during S-SIA and the cells with place fields in the "nest"
(where the rat sleeps) is therefore assessed. Preliminary observations
were reported by Skaggs (1995) and Jarosiewicz and Skaggs (1999 ,
2001 ).
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Subjects. Data were collected from six male Sprague
Dawley rats, weighing between 350 and 500 gm at the time of surgery.
Each rat was housed individually in a 12 hr light/dark cycle in a
temperature-controlled room with food and water available ad
libitum. For approximately 1 week before surgery, each rat was
handled and gradually accustomed to the recording room environment for
several hours a day and was food-deprived to 80-95% of its ad
libitum weight to motivate it to run for randomly scattered food
pellets so that recordings could be tracked between sleep and waking
behavior. Recordings were made during the light phase of the cycle.
Surgery. All surgery was performed under sterile conditions.
The rat was anesthetized with Equithesin (3 ml/kg, i.p.), and boosts of
Metofane (inhalant) or additional Equithesin were given during surgery
as necessary. Once deeply anesthetized, the rat was secured in earbars
in a Kopf stereotaxic frame (David Kopf Instruments, Tujunga,
CA). A small (~1 cm) incision was made along the midline of
the scalp to expose the cranium. Skin and connective tissue were
retracted, and five to six small holes were drilled into the cranium to
accommodate jeweler's screws, one of which was later connected to a
ground channel. Another larger hole was drilled over the right
hippocampus (~2 mm diameter, centered on anteroposterior, 3.5 mm;
mediolateral, 2-3 mm from bregma). The dura was retracted, and
the exposed cortex was covered with sterilized petroleum jelly. The
base of a "hyperdrive," which contained 12 individually drivable
tetrodes and two single-channel reference/EEG electrodes all bundled to
~1.5 mm diameter at the base, was lowered toward the exposed cortex.
The hyperdrive was cemented in place with dental acrylic, which was
anchored to the cranium by the jeweler's screws. Just after surgery,
the tetrodes and reference electrodes were lowered ~680 µm toward
the hippocampus, and the wound was covered with antibiotic ointment and
a mild local anesthetic ointment. Over the next few days, the wound was
cleaned and ointment was reapplied daily until the animal recovered.
Tetrodes were gradually lowered over a few hours each day until they
arrived at the hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cell layer (~2 mm deep),
which was identified by its well-characterized EEG and spike waveform characteristics (Ranck, 1973 ; Fox and Ranck, 1975 , 1981 ; O'Keefe, 1976 ; O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978 ; McNaughton et al., 1983 ; Buzsáki et al., 1992 ; Skaggs et al., 1996 ).
Electrophysiology and recording. For data acquisition, the
top of the hyperdrive was connected to a headstage containing
preamplifiers and a ring of light-emitting diodes used for position
tracking by a camera mounted on the ceiling over the recording chamber. The headstage was attached to a pair of soft, flexible cables, partially suspended by a counterweight system to help ease the load on
the rat's head. The cables ascended through the ceiling of the
recording chamber into the adjoining room, where they connected to the
Cheetah recording system (Neuralynx, Tucson, AZ), consisting of
eight 8 channel amplifiers with software-configurable high- and
low-pass filters, feeding their output to a custom-made controller and
analog-to-digital processor. During recording, signals from each
channel of each tetrode were filtered to 600-6000 Hz, sampled at 32 kHz per channel, formatted, and fed to a Sun Ultrasparc 2 workstation (Sun Microsystems, Palo Alto, CA) running
custom-written acquisition and control software. Each time the signal
on any one of the tetrode channels crossed a specified threshold, a 1 msec sample of data from all four channels of that tetrode was written
to disk, beginning 0.25 msec before the threshold was crossed,
capturing the spike waveform on each channel along with its timestamp.
An EEG was also recorded from one specified channel on each tetrode and
from an EEG electrode near the hippocampal fissure at a bandwidth of
1-100 or 1-500 Hz and a sampling rate of 2461 Hz. At the same time,
position records containing information about the distribution of light
across the video image were acquired at 60 Hz and written to disk. The
rat's velocity was calculated off-line as the change in position two
timestamps before and two timestamps after the current timestamp,
divided by the elapsed time. The error of the tracker is approximately
one-half the width of the ring of light-emitting diodes on the
headstage, or 2.5 cm.
Cheetah recording software on a Sun workstation was used to monitor
spike waveforms on each of the four channels of each of the 12 tetrodes
and one EEG trace from each tetrode and the EEG electrode, and an audio
monitor could be used to listen to signals from any single channel.
Once an adequate number of stable CA1 complex-spike cells were obtained
and robust theta activity was visible on one of the EEG channels
during locomotion, a recording session was performed. EEG signals,
spike waveforms, and the position of the rat were recorded
simultaneously while the rat slept, ran for randomly scattered food
pellets, or performed some sequential combination of the two.
Approximately 10-30 recording sessions ("data sets"), each on
separate days, were performed for each animal until damage from the
tetrodes made cells difficult to find or until the animal otherwise
became unusable, at which point the animal was humanely killed and its
hyperdrive was removed for reuse.
Cell isolation. Spike waveforms, EEG signals, and the rat's
position data, along with their respective timestamps, were stored onto
disk during the recording session for off-line analysis. Spikes were
assigned to individual cells by cluster-cutting in Xclust (written by
M. Wilson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA), which
plots any two selected parameters (e.g., spike height, spike width,
spike root-mean-square area, spike time, rat position, etc.) of all
spikes recorded from that tetrode against one another as a scatterplot.
For each tetrode in each data set, the experimenter drew polygons
around clusters of spike parameter values in these various
two-dimensional projections; ideally, each cluster in the
multidimensional parameter space contained spikes from a single
potential unit. Units were then judged to be complex-spike cells, theta
cells (corresponding to pyramidal cells and interneurons, respectively)
(Fox and Ranck, 1981 ), noise, or a chewing artifact, according to their
waveforms, interspike interval histograms, spatial selectivity, etc.;
only those units judged to be relatively clean, well-isolated
complex-spike cells were included in further analysis.
Behavioral task. In some data sets, recordings were
performed only while the rats were asleep in a round bowl or small
(25 × 20 cm) cardboard box lined with a towel (i.e., the nest).
In others, the sleep was preceded and/or followed by a run session, in
which the rat ran around eating randomly scattered food pellets; the
run sessions allowed cell activity to be compared across sleep and
waking states. The recording environment was either a square blue
plastic table top (70 cm2) surrounded by
distant blue curtains containing four cues or a round paper-covered
plywood floor bounded by a large gray cylindrical wall (76 cm diameter,
50.8 cm tall) with a white card covering 90° of arc on one side. The
nest in these data sets was placed on the floor of the recording
environment such that the rat could freely enter and exit the nest
during the run session, allowing the possibility to be tested that the
cells active in S-SIA had place fields in the nest.
Data analysis. Sleep states were delineated into categories
using two methods. The first method was entirely manual: plots containing rasters of all of the simultaneously recorded spikes, at
least one good EEG signal, and the rat's velocity were examined by the
experimenter. LIA, REM, and S-SIA onsets and offsets were delineated by
hand to the nearest 100 msec according to the following criteria:
periods during which LIA was present in the EEG were classified as LIA;
periods in which theta activity was present in the EEG and the rat was
not moving were classified as REM; and periods in which SIA was present
in the EEG and the population activity was sparse and fairly constant
were classified as S-SIA. Periods in which theta activity was present
in the EEG and the rat was moving were classified as waking.
To reduce the level of subjectivity in the delineation of sleep states,
a more objective method was developed for some analyses that relied on
the consistent structure of population activity across S-SIA episodes.
The "mean S-SIA population activity vector" was constructed for
each data set by calculating the mean firing rate for each cell during
all of the hand-delineated S-SIA episodes in that data set. This vector
was then compared with the population activity vector in each 500 msec
time bin throughout the sleep period. Those time bins with a population
activity vector that was highly correlated with the mean S-SIA
population activity vector (with threshold r = 0.6 or
0.8, depending on the correlation histogram for that particular data
set) were grouped into S-SIA, and the rest were grouped into non-S-SIA.
This method of sleep-state delineation has coarser temporal resolution,
but it has the advantage of being more objective. The correlation
between the categorization of each 100 msec epoch of sleep in
hand-delineated sleep states versus population activity
correlation-delineated sleep states was on average 0.45 ± 0.064, with the correlation-based delineation generally being more
conservative than hand delineation in labeling a time period as
S-SIA.
The population activity differences between S-SIA and the other
hand-delineated sleep states were also quantified in terms of
"sparseness" of population activity (Treves and Rolls, 1991 ), defined as the ratio
<r>2/<r2>,
where r is the vector of mean firing rates of the cells in a
short interval of time. This ratio can also be written as
(1/N × ri)2/(1/N × ri2),
where ri is the mean firing rate of
the ith cell over a given interval of time and N
is the total number of cells. Thus, sparseness is 1 when all cells are
active at the same firing rate and approaches 0 when a very small
fraction of cells are active and the rest are silent. When no cells are
active, the sparseness is undefined. The mean sparseness was calculated
for each of the hand-delineated sleep states (LIA, REM, and S-SIA) for
each data set using 500 msec time bins. Because S-SIA has a
characteristic population activity profile in which a small percentage
of cells are active, S-SIA was expected to have the lowest mean sparseness.
The difference in EEG between S-SIA and the other sleep states was
quantified in terms of mean total power in the EEG signal for that
state. Total power is the root-mean-square area under the curve; thus,
the higher the amplitude of the EEG in a given time interval, the
higher its total power. The mean total power was calculated for each
hand-delineated sleep state (LIA, REM, and S-SIA) in each of the above
data sets, and to verify that the differences in EEG power were not
attributable to subjectivity in the delineation of sleep states,
the total power in the EEG was also calculated for sleep states
delineated solely by population activity correlations (non-S-SIA vs
S-SIA). Because EEG amplitude varies with electrode depth, the power in
hand-delineated S-SIA and REM was normalized by the mean power in LIA
in its data set, and the power in correlation-delineated S-SIA was
normalized by the mean power in non-S-SIA in its data set. Thus, powers
were expressed as a proportion of the mean power during LIA or
non-S-SIA. Because S-SIA has a flattened EEG relative to LIA and REM,
it was expected to have the lowest mean power.
The incidence of S-SIA episodes relative to REM episodes was also
examined to quantify the observations that S-SIA never immediately precedes a REM episode (i.e., there is always some LIA before every REM
episode) and that almost every REM episode is immediately followed by
S-SIA. The first observation was quantified by cross-correlating the
offsets of S-SIA episodes with the onsets of REM episodes in each data
set using 5 sec bins. Because S-SIA never occurs just before REM, S-SIA
offsets were expected to never coincide with REM onsets, producing a
dip in the cross-correlation just before and at 0. The second
observation was quantified by cross-correlating the offset of REM with
the onset of S-SIA over all of the episodes in all the data sets.
Because nearly all REM episodes were immediately followed by an S-SIA
episode, REM offsets were expected to coincide with S-SIA onsets,
producing a peak at 0 in the cross-correlation.
To reduce the level of subjectivity in the delineation of onsets and
offsets of REM and S-SIA, these observations were also quantified by
comparing the population activity before and after REM episodes with
the mean S-SIA population activity vector. To quantify the incidence of
S-SIA episodes over time before REM, the population activity for 1 min
preceding each REM episode was divided into 5 sec bins, and the
correlation between the population activity vector of each bin and the
mean S-SIA population activity vector was calculated. (Because REM
often evolves out of LIA gradually, the hand-delineated REM onset times
were somewhat arbitrary; thus, there is still some subjectivity to this
analysis.) To quantify the occurrence of S-SIA episodes immediately
after REM episodes, the population activity for 30 sec after each REM
episode was divided into 2 sec bins, and the correlation between the
population activity vector of each bin and the mean S-SIA population
activity vector was calculated. (The transition out of REM was always
quite abrupt, so the REM offset times were more accurate.)
To test whether the cells active during S-SIA were cells with place
fields in the location in which the rat was sleeping, "correlation
maps" were made using data sets in which a fairly long sleep session
was recorded in the same data set as a run session, the rat entered the
nest repeatedly during the run session, and abundant cells were tracked
between the sleep and run sessions. A vector of the mean firing rate of
each cell was constructed for each pixel in the environment (the
"mean run population activity vector"). The "S-SIA population
activity vector" was constructed in one of two ways: if the sleep
states had been delineated previously by hand, then the mean of the
population activity across all of the episodes of S-SIA was used, as
above. For the rest of the data sets, an idealized S-SIA population
activity vector was constructed: the raster of population activity was
examined to determine which cells were S-SIA-active and which were not
(these groups were fairly consistent across S-SIA episodes), and the
population activity vector consisted simply of 1's for S-SIA-active
cells and 0's for the rest of the cells (because the firing rates of
the S-SIA-active cells in these data sets were fairly similar to one
another, this approximation did not severely impair subsequent
analysis, because correlation coefficients are insensitive to scale).
Then, for each pixel in the environment, the correlation coefficient
between the S-SIA population activity vector and the mean run
population activity vector was determined, and the result was a
correlation map of the population activities during the run
session and S-SIA. Peaks in the correlation map correspond to locations
in the environment for which the population activity during the run
session most resembles the population activity during S-SIA. For
instance, if the S-SIA-active cells are place cells with fields
spanning the location in which the rat is sleeping, the peak of the
correlation map should occur in the location of the rat's nest.
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RESULTS |
Structure of population activity and EEG in LIA, REM,
and S-SIA
Consistent with the results of many previous studies (for review,
see O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978 ), we find that during SWS and drowsy
waking states, the EEG at the level of the hippocampal fissure exhibits
predominantly LIA with occasional sharp waves, often accompanied at the
pyramidal cell layer by ripples. The population activity during LIA
(Fig. 1C) is generally
diffuse, with large increases in activity across the entire population during sharp waves. REM (Fig. 1B) resembles awake
exploration (Fig. 1A) in both EEG and CA1 population
activity: theta activity is present in the EEG, and individual cells
occasionally show bursts of activity surrounded by silence, as when the
rat is running through the place fields of recorded cells. However, we
also observed in all animals the existence of a third physiological
state, intermixed with LIA during all periods of SWS and after nearly
every REM episode, in which the EEG abruptly becomes very low in
amplitude for a few seconds and a small subset of cells (~3-5%)
becomes very active while the rest of the cells remain nearly silent
(see Figs. 1D, 6A,C,E,F); the same
subset of cells is usually active across many consecutive episodes (see
Figs. 1D,E, 6A,E,F). Toward the end
of these episodes, the active cells gradually decrease their activity
and the EEG amplitude gradually increases, sometimes exhibiting some
low-amplitude, low-frequency (type 2) theta activity and often
terminating abruptly with a sharp wave before returning to LIA (see
Figs. 1E, 6A,C,E). The duration of
episodes ranges from ~200 msec to many seconds. The EEG during this
state most likely corresponds to the previously described low-amplitude
irregular activity (Pickenhain and Klingberg, 1967 ), also called
small-amplitude irregular activity or SIA (Vanderwolf, 1971 ; Whishaw,
1972 ). To distinguish the general physiological state of SIA from its
more specific manifestation during sleep, we refer to the SIA that we
observe during sleep as S-SIA.

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Figure 1.
Hippocampal physiological states. Fifteen second
sample epochs from a single recording session (p119-03) showing an EEG
recorded near the hippocampal fissure (top); a raster of
spikes from the ensemble of 54 simultaneously recorded CA1 pyramidal
cells (middle); and the animal's velocity, with 0 aligned at the bottom of the plot (bottom).
A, Awake exploration of the recording environment. Note
the theta activity in the EEG trace, the population activity reflecting
the place selectivity of the recorded cells, and the nonzero velocity,
indicating movement. B, REM. Note the regular
theta oscillation in the EEG and the characteristic population
activity, both similar to run. The velocity trace is mostly 0, indicating a lack of gross movement. (The occasional transients in the
velocity traces are attributable to noise in the position data.)
C, SWS. Note the large-amplitude irregular activity and
occasional sharp waves in the EEG, corresponding, respectively, to
periods of diffuse population activity and sudden increases in activity
across the CA1 population. D, S-SIA emerging from a REM
episode. Note the reduced-amplitude EEG and the unusual population
activity profile, with a small percentage of continuously active cells
and the rest nearly silent. During the two sharp waves, the population
activity transiently increases. The transition into S-SIA is always
quite abrupt and often follows one or two sharp waves.
E, A later episode of S-SIA, this time occurring within
LIA during SWS. Note that the same subset of cells is active as in
D. F, An example of the transition into
REM, which always evolves gradually out of LIA.
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Quantification of population activity and EEG characteristics
The existence of repeating patterns of activity can be seen in
population autocorrelation plots, in which each pixel shows the
correlation of the population activity vectors at two points in time.
Figure 2A shows such a
plot, constructed from data recorded during 12 min of SWS; the red
blocks are areas of high correlation, corresponding to S-SIA episodes.
The fact that the level of red does not decrease outward from the
diagonal indicates that S-SIA population activity patterns are strongly
correlated across the entire 12 min. Indeed, similar plots made from
much longer SWS periods often show the same level of correlation across
time. Three data sets (p081-16, p121-01, and p121-04) contained
S-SIA-active cells that could be followed between prerun sleep and
postrun sleep; of the 13 such cells, 6 were active in both prerun S-SIA and postrun S-SIA, and each of these data sets contained at least one
cell that was active in both and one cell that was not.

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Figure 2.
EEG and population activity structure of S-SIA.
A, Population activity vector autocorrelation matrix
from a 12 min sample of SWS, using 500 msec bins (from data set
p108-03). Blue areas correspond to low correlation
values and red areas correspond to high correlation
values. The red blocks off the diagonal reveal highly consistent
patterns of population activity occurring repeatedly throughout the 12 min time interval; these correspond to episodes of S-SIA.
B, Scatterplot of sparseness versus EEG total power for
each 2 sec epoch from the entire sleep period in data set p108-03. This
data set exhibits a robust clustering corresponding to periods of LIA,
REM, and S-SIA: LIA has high EEG power and high sparseness, REM has
high EEG power and low sparseness, and S-SIA has low EEG power and low
sparseness. Each point is color-coded according to the hand-delineated
sleep state that occupies at least one-half of the 2 sec period that
the point represents. C, D, Power spectra
of hand-delineated sleep states. Power spectra were constructed using
Welch's averaged, modified periodogram method, with a window size of 1 sec and a sampling frequency of 492.2 Hz. Only episodes at least 2 sec
long were included in this analysis, totaling 1615.3 sec of S-SIA,
1293.9 sec of REM, and 5749.9 sec of LIA. S-SIA has a lower power
across the frequency spectrum than either LIA or REM. It has a small
peak in the low-frequency (type 2) theta range (~6 Hz). REM shows a
peak at type 1 theta frequency (~7 Hz), and LIA has a wide peak at
~2-4 Hz and remains higher than REM and S-SIA across the spectrum.
D, The same data are plotted against log power to reveal
the power differences in the high frequencies. Again, S-SIA has a lower
power than LIA throughout the spectrum. REM has another peak around
gamma frequency (35-90 Hz), which does not occur in LIA or S-SIA. The
source of the peak near 90-95 Hz in all spectra is unknown. The sharp
peaks at 60, 180, and 195 Hz are attributable to artifact.
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For an initial examination of the relationship between population
activity and EEG throughout sleep, episodes of LIA, REM, and S-SIA were
delineated by visual inspection of EEG and CA1 population activity. In
S-SIA, a small subset of cells is very active while the rest are nearly
silent; this effect was quantified using sparseness of population
activity. As described in Materials and Methods, sparseness is 1 when
all cells are active at the same firing rate and approaches 0 when only
a small fraction of cells are active; thus, S-SIA was expected to have
a low average sparseness. The finding that the EEG flattens during
S-SIA relative to LIA and REM was quantified using "total power" in
the EEG, which is the root-mean-square amplitude; thus, S-SIA was
expected to have a low total power. As an example, the sparseness of
population activity and total power in the EEG were calculated for a
single data set, and a scatterplot was constructed of sparseness versus EEG power for each 2 sec bin (Fig. 2B). Each point in
the scatterplot was color-coded according to the hand-delineated sleep
state that occupies at least one-half of the 2 sec period that the
point represents. This data set exhibits a robust clustering
corresponding to periods of LIA, REM, and S-SIA: LIA has high EEG power
and high sparseness, REM has high EEG power and low sparseness, and S-SIA has low EEG power and low sparseness.
EEG power spectra
To check for differences in the frequency content of the EEG in
the different sleep states, power spectra were constructed for manually
delineated LIA, REM, and S-SIA episodes (Fig. 2C,D) using
five data sets from four different animals with good EEG signals,
abundant cells including at least one S-SIA-active cell, and fairly
long bouts of continuous sleep including at least one REM episode (data
sets p094-04, p108-03, p119-03, p119-07, and p121-04). S-SIA had a
lower power across the frequency spectrum than either LIA or REM,
corresponding to its low amplitude, and had a small peak in the
low-frequency theta range (~6 Hz), possibly corresponding to
low-amplitude type 2 theta frequency, which was sometimes
visible in the raw EEG toward the end of longer episodes (see Figs.
1E, 6C,F). REM showed a peak at
type 1 theta frequency (~7 Hz), and LIA had a wide peak around 2-4
Hz and remained higher than REM and S-SIA across the spectrum.
Changes in mean population activity associated with S-SIA
In six data sets from five different animals (p094-04, p098-01,
p108-03, p119-03, p119-07, and p121-04), contributing 157 hand-delineated S-SIA episodes of at least 3 sec duration, changes in
population activity associated with S-SIA episodes were investigated by
constructing peri-event time histograms of the mean population activity
surrounding the onset (Fig.
3A) and offset (Fig.
3B) of S-SIA episodes. The mean population activity
transiently increased slightly at the onset of S-SIA episodes (Fig.
3A), which is probably the combined effect of the increase
in activity across the entire population associated with the one or
more sharp waves that often precede S-SIA episodes and the sudden burst
of activity from the few S-SIA-active cells. The mean population
activity then decreased into the episode as the S-SIA-inactive cells
became nearly silent and the S-SIA-active cells decreased their
activity. These changes in mean population activity over time around
S-SIA onset were highly significant (two-way ANOVA with 20 and 156 df;
F = 9.512; p < 10 15). The mean population activity
decreased in the last few seconds of S-SIA, reflecting a gradual
decline of activity of the S-SIA-active cells near the end of the
episode (Fig. 3B); the decline in the last 3 sec of S-SIA is
not an artifact of averaging across long and short episodes, because
only S-SIA episodes lasting 3 sec were used in this analysis. The
population activity abruptly increased again just after S-SIA offset,
almost always being terminated by a sharp wave, and returned to
baseline levels associated with LIA. These changes in population
activity over time around S-SIA offset were highly significant (two-way
ANOVA with 20 and 156 df; F = 11.2; p < 10 15).

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Figure 3.
EEG and population activity structure of
S-SIA. A, B, Changes in mean population
activity associated with S-SIA. Peri-event time histograms were
constructed for 5 sec windows around S-SIA onsets and offsets. The
average firing rate of the population of recorded cells was calculated
by dividing the total number of spikes across the population in each
500 msec bin by the total number of cells in the population. Only
episodes lasting >3 sec were used in this analysis to ensure that any
structure emerging in the 3 sec after S-SIA onset and before S-SIA
offset reflected actual population activity changes within episodes
rather than an artifact of averaging episodes of varying lengths.
A, Peri-event time histogram of population activity
aligned at S-SIA onset. The mean population activity increases slightly
at the onset of S-SIA episodes, a combined effect of the increase in
activity across the entire population associated with the one or more
sharp waves that often precede S-SIA episodes and the sudden burst of
activity from the few S-SIA-active cells. The mean population activity
then decreases into the S-SIA episode as the S-SIA-inactive cells
become nearly silent and the S-SIA-active cells gradually decrease
their activity (F = 9.512; p < 10 15). B, Peri-event time histogram
of population activity aligned at S-SIA offset. The total population
activity decreases as the activity of the S-SIA-active cells declines
in the last few seconds of S-SIA and increases transiently just after
S-SIA offset because sharp waves often terminate S-SIA episodes
(F = 11.2; p < 10 15). C, D,
Sparseness = <r>2/<r2>,
where r is the vector of mean firing rates of the cells,
using 500 msec time bins. C, Sparseness in
hand-delineated LIA, REM, and S-SIA episodes. The mean sparseness
during S-SIA is significantly smaller than during LIA but is not
significantly different from REM (F = 11.17;
p = 0.0048). D, Sparseness in
correlation-delineated sleep states (S-SIA and non-S-SIA). The mean
sparseness during S-SIA is significantly smaller than during non-S-SIA
(p = 0.0059). E,
F, EEG total power is the root-mean-square area under
the curve of the EEG, using 492.2 samples/sec. E, EEG
total power in hand-delineated LIA, REM, and S-SIA episodes, normalized
by the total power in LIA in each data set. The mean total power in the
EEG is significantly smaller in S-SIA than both REM and LIA
(F = 19.63; p = 0.0008).
F, EEG total power in correlation-delineated sleep
states (non-S-SIA and S-SIA), normalized by the total power in
non-S-SIA. The mean total power in the EEG is significantly smaller in
S-SIA than in non-S-SIA (p = 0.0049). The
horizontal dashed lines at EEG Power = 1 represent the
normalized power during LIA (E) and non-S-SIA.
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Sparseness
In five data sets from four different animals with good EEG
signals, abundant cells including at least one S-SIA-active cell, and
fairly long bouts of continuous sleep including at least one REM
episode (data sets p094-04, p108-03, p119-03, p119-07, and p121-04),
the sparseness of the population activity of both hand-delineated sleep
states and correlation-delineated sleep states was calculated across
animals (Fig. 3C,D). These data
sets contributed 1/33, 2/47, 2/57, 1/60, and 5/46 S-SIA-active/total
recorded cells, respectively, for a total of 11/243 cells. Note that
this ratio slightly overestimates the mean percentage of S-SIA-active
cells, because only data sets containing at least one S-SIA-active cell were used in this analysis; when those data sets with no S-SIA-active cells are taken into account, the average percentage of cells active in
S-SIA was ~3%.
Because S-SIA has a characteristic population activity profile in which
a small percentage of cells are continuously active and the rest are
nearly silent, S-SIA was expected to have a low average sparseness.
Using 500 msec time bins, the mean and SEM of the sparseness were
calculated for hand-delineated LIA, REM, and S-SIA; these were
0.11 ± 0.01, 0.070 ± 0.010, and 0.053 ± 0.006, respectively (Fig. 3C). These means were significantly different (two-way ANOVA with 2 and 8 df; F = 11.17;
p = 0.0048). Post hoc paired t
tests verified that the sparseness during S-SIA was significantly
smaller than during LIA (p = 0.016), but it was
not significantly different from REM. The difference between the
sparseness in S-SIA and REM was not expected to be large, because the
cell activity during REM resembles that of awake exploration, during
which cells are fairly silent most of the time but become active at
fairly high rates when the rats enter their place fields. The mean and
SEM of sparseness were also calculated for correlation-delineated non-S-SIA and S-SIA; these were 0.098 ± 0.008 and 0.054 ± 0.011, respectively (Fig. 3D). The sparseness during
S-SIA was significantly smaller than during non-S-SIA (one-tailed
t test; p = 0.0059). Note once again that
the sparseness during S-SIA is probably slightly overestimated because
only those data sets containing at least one S-SIA-active cell were
used in these analyses.
EEG total power
The finding that the EEG flattens during S-SIA relative to LIA and
REM was quantified using total power in the EEG, which is the
root-mean-square of the EEG amplitude. The average total power was
calculated for hand-delineated and population activity-delineated sleep
states from the same data sets used in the sparseness analysis above.
Because EEG amplitude varies with electrode depth, the total power was
normalized by the mean total power during LIA in each data set. With
the power during LIA set to 1, the mean relative power was 0.95 ± 0.08 during REM and 0.59 ± 0.04 during S-SIA (Fig.
3E). The LIA, REM, and S-SIA means were significantly different (two-way ANOVA with 2 and 8 df; F = 19.63;
p = 0.0008). Post hoc t tests
verified that the total power in the EEG during S-SIA was significantly
smaller than both LIA (p = 0.00001) and REM
(p = 0.0063).
To verify that these differences in EEG power across sleep states were
not attributable to experimenter bias during manual sleep-state
delineation, the total power in the EEG was also calculated for sleep
states delineated solely by population activity correlations. In each
data set, the total power was normalized by the mean total power during
non-S-SIA; thus, the power in the EEG during S-SIA was expressed as a
proportion of the mean power of non-S-SIA in that data set. Indeed, the
mean relative power during S-SIA was 0.83 ± 0.04 (Fig.
3F), which was significantly smaller than non-S-SIA (t test; p = 0.0049). Thus, the power in the
EEG is significantly lower during S-SIA than during non-S-SIA, even
when S-SIA episodes are defined by population activity patterns alone;
this finding confirms that the differences in EEG power across sleep
states are not attributable to experimenter bias during manual
delineation of sleep states and fortifies the claim that population
activity patterns are consistent across long sequences of S-SIA
episodes. In summary, LIA, REM, and S-SIA differ from one another in
EEG power and sparseness of population activity in the following way: LIA has high EEG power and high sparseness, REM has high EEG power and
low sparseness, and S-SIA has low EEG power and low sparseness.
Temporal structure of S-SIA
Duration and interepisode interval
In six data sets from five different animals with good EEG
signals, abundant cells, and fairly long bouts of continuous sleep (p094-04, p098-01, p108-03, p119-03, p119-07, and p121-04),
contributing 262 total hand-delineated S-SIA episodes, the temporal
structure of hand-delineated S-SIA states was quantified in terms of
duration of episodes and time interval between consecutive episodes.
S-SIA is irregularly intermixed with LIA during periods of SWS (Fig. 4A), occupying
33.4 ± 6.6% of SWS and 20.6 ± 3.8% of total sleep. A
typical S-SIA episode lasts ~2 sec, but the mean duration is higher
(7.9 ± 0.6 sec) because of the positive skew of the duration histogram (Fig. 4B). Longer S-SIA episodes are
interrupted every few seconds by sharp waves and an associated firing
rate increase across the entire pyramidal cell population; thus, longer
S-SIA episodes could also have been counted as a sequence of shorter S-SIA episodes. The mean interepisode interval is 36.9 ± 3.4 sec, and its distribution is also positively skewed (Fig.
4C).

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Figure 4.
Temporal structure of S-SIA episodes.
A, Correlation of population activity with the mean
S-SIA population activity vector in 500 msec bins during a 10 min
interval of LIA from data set p108-03, showing the detailed structure
of S-SIA episode occurrence. Periods of high correlation generally
correspond to S-SIA episodes. Note that S-SIA is irregularly intermixed
with LIA during periods of SWS. B, Histogram of S-SIA
episode durations. The mean duration is 7.9 ± 0.55 sec, but
shorter episodes are more frequent than long ones. Longer S-SIA
episodes are interrupted every few seconds by sharp waves and could
also have been counted as a sequence of short episodes.
C, Histogram of inter-S-SIA episode intervals. The mean
is 36.9 ± 3.42 sec, and its distribution is also positively
skewed.
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Relation to REM episodes
In five data sets from four different animals with good EEG
signals, abundant cells including at least one S-SIA-active cell, and
fairly long bouts of continuous sleep including at least one REM
episode (data sets p094-04, p108-03, p119-03, p119-07, and p121-04),
the incidence of S-SIA with respect to REM was analyzed. These data
sets contributed 3, 5, 7, 7, and 2 REM episodes and 45, 33, 39, 41, and
36 S-SIA episodes, respectively, for a total of 24 REM episodes and 194 S-SIA episodes. S-SIA was never observed to immediately precede REM,
but it immediately followed nearly every REM episode. The first
observation was quantified by cross-correlating the offsets of S-SIA
episodes with the onsets of REM episodes in each data set (Fig.
5A); the dip in the mean
cross-correlation histogram just before and at 0 illustrates that no
S-SIA episodes immediately preceded any REM episodes in these data
sets. The second observation was quantified by cross-correlating the
offset of REM with the onset of S-SIA over all of the episodes in all of the data sets (Fig. 5B); the peak at 0 illustrates that
REM episodes were often immediately followed by S-SIA episodes.

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Figure 5.
Incidence of S-SIA relative to REM, based on 24 REM episodes and 194 S-SIA episodes from four animals.
A, Cross-correlation of hand-delineated S-SIA offsets
versus REM onsets. The dip before and at 0 represents the observation
that S-SIA episodes never occur just before REM episodes.
B, Cross-correlation of hand-delineated REM offsets
versus S-SIA onsets. The peak at 0 represents the observation that REM
offsets frequently correspond to S-SIA onsets (i.e., that most REM
episodes are immediately followed by an S-SIA episode).
C, Mean correlation of population activity with S-SIA in
5 sec bins for 1 min preceding each REM episode. On average, the
correlation decreases significantly over time (F = 2.509; p = 0.0038), demonstrating that the
incidence of S-SIA, as determined by population activity correlations,
decreases over time before REM episodes. D, Mean
correlation of population activity with S-SIA in 2 sec bins for 30 sec
after each REM episode. The peak just at REM offset and rapid decline
in correlation with S-SIA (F = 14.3;
p < 10 15) demonstrate that
REM episodes are often immediately followed by S-SIA episodes.
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To verify that these results were not purely a result of the subjective
delineation of onsets and offsets of both REM and S-SIA, these
observations were also quantified by plotting the population activity
correlations with the mean S-SIA population activity vector, a robust
indicator of the presence of S-SIA, in the time periods before and
after hand-delineated REM episodes. To quantify the decrease in S-SIA
episodes over time before REM episodes, the population activity for 1 min preceding each REM episode was divided into 5 sec bins, and the
correlation between each bin and the mean S-SIA population activity
vector was plotted to verify that, on average, the correlation
decreases over time (Fig. 5C). Because the number of REM
episodes varied across data sets, correlation plots for all 24 REM
episodes were used as independent observations in a two-way ANOVA
rather than using the means for each data set. The decrease in the mean
correlations across time bins was significant (two-way ANOVA with 12 and 276 df; F = 2.509; p = 0.0038),
supporting the observation that S-SIA episodes become less and less
frequent over the minute before a REM episode and rarely occur within
seconds of REM. To quantify the observation that S-SIA episodes
immediately follow most REM episodes, the population activity for 30 sec after each REM episode was divided into 2 sec bins, and the
correlation between each bin and the mean S-SIA population activity
vector was plotted (Fig. 5D). On average, the correlation
with S-SIA just after REM is very high, indicating the robust presence
of S-SIA episodes, and decreases to baseline levels over the next few
seconds, corresponding to the termination of the S-SIA episodes of
various lengths. Again, the decrease in the correlation across time
bins was significant (two-way ANOVA with 15 and 345 df;
F = 14.3; p < 10 15), supporting the observation that
most REM episodes are immediately followed by S-SIA episodes.
Functional correlates of population activity in S-SIA
The cells active during S-SIA are otherwise physiologically
indistinguishable from those not active during S-SIA (at least in terms
of extracellularly observable properties); thus, the question arises as
to whether S-SIA-active cells have any special functional correlates.
Indeed, the population activity patterns during S-SIA appear similar to
the population activity patterns that occur while the rat is awake and
moving around inside the nest (Fig.
6A,B). Furthermore,
when the rat changes its location within the nest and falls back
asleep, the cells active while it moves sometimes change from one
subset to another (i.e., the rat moves between place fields within the
nest), and the cells active in subsequent S-SIA episodes change
accordingly (Fig. 6C-F). Thus, the possibility is
raised that S-SIA-active cells are cells with place fields encompassing
the location where the rat is sleeping; i.e., that S-SIA is a state of
increased alertness in which the animal's location in the environment
is represented in the brain.

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Figure 6.
The population activity in S-SIA may reflect the
rat's current location. A, Two short S-SIA episodes
within LIA. Note the flattening of the EEG and the characteristic
population activity. B, Later in the recording, the rat
is awake and moving around inside the nest. Note that the same subset
of cells that was active in S-SIA is active here.
C-F, SIA-active cells change as the rat changes
position in the nest (from p119-03). Same format as before, except now
with two additional traces: the rat's x and
y coordinates are plotted as a function of time, just
below the EEG trace, so that changes in the rat's location within the
nest can be seen along with the raster. C, S-SIA while
the rat is in first location. Note the S-SIA-active cell. (This is the
same period of time as Fig. 1E; another example
of S-SIA from this recording can be seen in Fig.
1D.) D, The rat enters S-SIA and
then wakes up and changes its location inside the nest; note that a
different cell becomes active in this new location. E,
An S-SIA episode shortly after the change in location. Note that the
same cell that was active while the rat was awake in the new location
is active in S-SIA. F, A later S-SIA episode.
While the rat is sleeping in this new location, this new cell continues
to be S-SIA-active.
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To quantify the observation that S-SIA-active cells appear to have
place fields in the location of the nest, correlation maps were made
using six data sets from four different animals in which a good sleep
session was recorded in the same data set as a run session, the rat
entered the nest repeatedly during the run session, and at least one
S-SIA-active cell was tracked between the sleep and run sessions (data
sets p094-14, p116-05, p116-06, p119-03, p121-02, and p121-04). These
data sets contributed 2/20, 3/45, 2/40, 2/44, 3/21, and 5/39
S-SIA-active/total recorded cells, respectively, that were tracked
between run and sleep sessions (total: 17/209). For each pixel in the
environment, the correlation coefficient between the S-SIA population
activity vector and the mean population activity vector during run was
determined, and the result was a correlation map (Fig.
7A). Peaks in the correlation map correspond to locations in the environment at which the population activity during run most resembles the population activity during S-SIA. If the S-SIA-active cells are place cells with fields in the
location in which the rat is sleeping, the peak of the correlation map
should occur in the location of the rat's nest.

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Figure 7.
A, S-SIA population activity
correlation maps. For each data set, the correlation between the S-SIA
population activity vector and the mean population activity vector
during run was plotted for each pixel of the environment. Blue
areas correspond to low correlation values and red
areas correspond to high correlation values (as shown by the
scales to the right of each map). The peaks correspond
to places in the environment where the population activity during run
most closely resembles the population activity during S-SIA. The
location of the sleeping nest within the environment is shown as a
black outline for each data set. The nest in p116-06 is
rotated and shifted toward the left with respect to the nest in the
other round environments, because the rat pushed it there early in the
run session. The mean correlation in the nest was greater than expected
by chance (p < 0.001), supporting the
hypothesis that S-SIA-active cells tend to have place fields extending
into the location in which the rat is sleeping. The mean inside-nest
correlation values were also significantly higher than the mean
outside-nest correlation values (F = 12.54;
p = 0.016), demonstrating that the place fields of
S-SIA-active cells are significantly more likely to be inside the nest
than outside the nest. B, Two examples of cells that
were not active during S-SIA but whose place fields in the run session
extended into the nest. Black corresponds to areas in
the environment where that cell had a high firing rate, and
white corresponds to areas where that cell had a low
firing rate (as shown by the scales to the right of each
map); the black outline again corresponds to the
location of the nest. The mean firing rate during S-SIA of cell 1009 (top) is 0.16 sec 1 and that
of cell 1104 (bottom) is 0.36 sec 1;
although these rates are toward the high end of S-SIA-inactive cells in
this data set, they are significantly lower than those of the five
cells that were clearly active during S-SIA in this data set (mean = 1.83 ± 0.63 sec 1; p = 0.002 and 0.0032, respectively). C, Mean firing rate of
S-SIA-active and S-SIA-inactive cells outside and inside the nest
during the run session. On average, cells that were S-SIA-active were
more active inside the nest than outside the nest during run, and cells
that were S-SIA-inactive were more active outside the nest than inside
the nest during run. Paired one-tailed t tests confirmed
that both of these differences were significant
(p = 0.03 and 0.02, respectively),
supporting the hypothesis that the hippocampal population activity
during S-SIA reflects the rat's awareness of its current location in
space.
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In the data set with the square environment (p094-14), the nest was a
circular bowl in the center of the square environment, and
there was a clear peak in the correlation map in the nest (Fig.
7A, top left). In the round environments, the
nest was a box in the lower right-hand corner of the
environment. The mean of the correlation values in all of
the pixels inside the nest versus in the environment outside the nest
was 0.44 versus 0.12, 0.17 versus 0.077, 0.46 versus 0.17, 0.17 versus 0.097, 0.26 versus 0.036, and 0.34 versus 0.028 for each data
set, respectively, with a mean value across data sets of 0.31 ± 0.05 inside the nest versus 0.047 ± 0.040 outside the nest. To
test the hypothesis that the mean correlation in the nest was greater
than chance (0), the inside-nest means for each data set were compared
with 0 using a one-tailed t test. The results were
significant (p < 0.001), supporting the
hypothesis that the activity during S-SIA resembles the place-field
activity inside the nest during run more than would be expected by
chance. To rule out the possibility that the S-SIA-active cells were
simply more active than other cells everywhere in the environment,
which would increase the correlation values everywhere, the mean
inside-nest correlation values were compared with the mean outside-nest
correlation values. Indeed, the mean inside-nest correlation values
were significantly greater than the mean outside-nest correlation
values (two-way ANOVA with 1 and 5 df; F = 12.54;
p = 0.016), supporting the hypothesis that S-SIA-active
cells are more likely to have place fields inside the nest than outside
the nest.
Although most of the correlation maps clearly had at least one peak
inside the nest, sometimes the peaks extended outside the nest, and
sometimes peaks occurred entirely outside the nest. The peaks outside
the nest are attributable to S-SIA-active cells with multiple place
fields or, less frequently, to S-SIA-active cells with place fields
located entirely outside of the nest. The converse, cells with place
fields extending into the nest that were not clearly S-SIA-active, were
also observed occasionally (Fig. 7B). The factors that
determine whether particular S-SIA-active cells will have place fields
in the nest and whether particular cells with place fields in the nest
will be S-SIA-active are as yet unclear. On average, however, cells
that were S-SIA-active were more active inside the nest (mean firing
rate = 0.54 ± 0.24 sec 1) than
outside the nest (mean = 0.13 ± 0.05 sec 1) during run, and cells that were
S-SIA-inactive were more active outside the nest (mean = 0.085 ± 0.017 sec 1) than inside
the nest (mean = 0.068 ± 0.014 sec 1) during run (Fig. 7C).
These means were significantly different (paired one-tailed
t test; p = 0.03 and 0.02, respectively),
supporting the hypothesis that the hippocampal population activity
during S-SIA reflects the rat's current location in space.
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DISCUSSION |
This study shows that SIA occurs frequently during
sleep (S-SIA) in the rat and that hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cell
activity during S-SIA is sparse, with the same subset of cells (3-5%
of the total recorded population) active across long sequences
of episodes. S-SIA episodes are irregularly intermixed with LIA during periods of SWS, occupying ~33% of SWS and 20% of total sleep, usually lasting ~2 sec but occasionally much longer, and occurring on
average 30-44 sec apart. Although the possibility has not been ruled
out that S-SIA-active cells are a different morphological class of
cells, this seems unlikely, because S-SIA-active cells are
otherwise similar to ordinary complex-spike (pyramidal) cells: they
are recorded in the same layer of the hippocampus as other complex-spike cells, they fire complex spikes, they often have place
fields, and the subset of cells active during S-SIA can change over
time. The population activity during S-SIA statistically resembles the
population activity during waking states while the rat is in the
location of the nest, and S-SIA-active cells sometimes change when the
rat changes its position in the nest, suggesting that S-SIA is a state
of heightened arousal during which the rat's current location in space
is represented in the brain. Although the correspondence between cells
that are active during S-SIA and cells with place fields in the nest is
not perfect, it is significantly higher than expected by chance,
supporting the hypothesis that the hippocampal population activity
during S-SIA reflects the rat's awareness of its current location in space.
In this study, S-SIA states were identified in two ways: by visual
inspection and by correlation with the mean of the population activity
vectors from the visually identified periods. Neither of these methods
is completely objective, although the latter is more so. There are
several possible approaches toward a completely objective way of
identifying SIA epochs, using for example the clustering observable in
Figure 2B or the high interevent correlations observable in Figure 2A. In the present article, it
was considered desirable to aim for the most precise possible
separation of S-SIA from non-S-SIA states, but other approaches are
certainly possible and may be more useful in future studies.
Despite the similar appearance of the EEG during S-SIA to the waking
SIA state described in the literature (Pickenhain and Klingberg, 1967 ;
Vanderwolf, 1971 ; Whishaw, 1972 ), there is as yet no definitive
evidence that they are actually the same physiological state. A more
direct test would be to purposely wake a sleeping rat with a controlled
stimulus, in the spirit of Pickenhain and Klingberg (1967) , and to test
whether the elicited EEG and population activity profile coincide with
that of spontaneous S-SIA episodes in that data set. Furthermore, one
could startle the rat during a run session while it is outside of the
nest to test whether SIA appears in the EEG and S-SIA-like population
activity occurs, with the active cells now representing the rat's
current location rather than the location of the nest. If so, these
findings would provide evidence that S-SIA actually corresponds
physiologically to the SIA state reported in the literature, and
furthermore, that the population activity in both forms of SIA
represents the rat's current location.
A related question is whether S-SIA is actually the same behavioral
state as waking SIA. Is S-SIA a sleep state whose physiology resembles
that of waking SIA, in the same way that REM is a sleep state whose
physiology resembles waking theta activity, or is it actually a
waking state that repeatedly interrupts sleep? There is no consensus in
the literature on an absolute definition of sleep and waking, but
several characteristics are used heuristically to distinguish whether
an animal is asleep or awake: motion, EEG, EMG, etc. During LIA and
theta activity, whether a rat is awake or asleep can be
determined by whether or not it is moving. In the case of S-SIA, such
an assessment is inconclusive, because rats are reported to be
motionless during waking SIA as well. Our observations that
S-SIA occurs so frequently within LIA during SWS (often within minutes
of REM onset), that it consistently occurs just after REM, and that its
occurrence during sleep is consistent across animals support the idea
that S-SIA is a sleep state. Conversely, our findings that the
hippocampal population activity during S-SIA reflects an awareness of
self-location and that S-SIA rarely occurs immediately before or during
REM support the idea that S-SIA is a waking state.
A neocortical EEG might help shed some light on this issue, because it
is often used along with a hippocampal EEG to delineate physiological
states (Green and Arduini, 1954 ; Pickenhain and Klingberg, 1967 ;
Vanderwolf, 1969 ; Whishaw, 1972 ; O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978 ; Gottesmann,
1992 ). For example, Gottesmann (1992) divides the sleep-waking cycle of
the rat into seven states; in both of the waking states, the
neocortical EEG is desynchronized, and in all the sleep states, it is
not, with the exception of REM, during which neocortical
desynchronization is present despite behavioral evidence of sleep (he
does not characterize SIA at all). According to Roldán et al.
(1963) and Bergmann et al. (1987) , neocortical desynchronization does
occur during S-SIA. Although their finding supports the idea that S-SIA
is a state of heightened neocortical arousal, it should not be treated
as definitive evidence that S-SIA is a waking state, because
neocortical desynchronization also occurs during REM, a sleep state.
Thus, the desynchronization of the neocortical EEG during S-SIA does
not distinguish whether S-SIA is a waking state or simply another
"paradoxical" sleep state of heightened neocortical arousal.
EEG-based criteria were developed as a secondary, post hoc
measure of behavioral state transitions; perhaps an EMG, a measure of
muscle tone, would be more useful in distinguishing sleep and waking
states, because it directly measures behavioral phenomena that
originally motivated the conception of this dichotomy. In Gottesmann's
(1992) characterization, all of the waking states exhibit
higher-amplitude EMG signals, evidencing more muscle tone, than any of
the sleep states; again, Gottesmann did not characterize SIA. Bergmann
et al. (1987) did record EMG during S-SIA, finding it to be very low;
they called this state low-amplitude sleep, basing the "sleep" part
of their terminology on its low EMG amplitude. However, they also
report observing low EMG amplitude in a waking state that
fulfills their EEG criteria for SIA; thus, their data also fail to
resolve whether S-SIA is a waking or a sleep state. The literature on
the neocortical EEG, then, suggests that S-SIA should be thought of as
a waking state, and the literature on the EMG suggests that S-SIA
should be thought of as a sleep state; neither result provides a
conclusive answer. It would be useful to compare the neocortical EEG
and EMG profiles more systematically between waking SIA, elicited
S-SIA, spontaneous S-SIA, and the other behavioral states; perhaps a
systematic study could shed more light on this issue.
A third possibility to consider is that S-SIA (indeed, possibly all
manifestations of SIA) is neither distinctly a sleep nor a waking
state; instead, it might fall somewhere toward the middle of a
continuum of levels of arousal. Such a continuum appears to exist, for
instance, in humans, in whom the transition from waking to sleep is
more accurately depicted as an interval of time rather than an instant,
when both EEG and behavioral responsiveness are taken into account
(Ogilvie and Wilkinson, 1988 ). Furthermore, during normal sleep in
humans, transitory states of heightened arousal exist, lasting on the
order of seconds to tens of seconds and occurring every 4-5 min,
called "phases d'activation transitoire" (Schieber et al., 1968 ,
1971 ; Ehrhart and Muzet, 1974 ) or "microarousals" (Halász et
al., 1979 ; for review, see Terzano et al., 1991 ). These resemble
arousal in EEG, EMG, and heart rate; they are often accompanied by
shifts in posture or other movements; they occur more frequently during
"lighter" stages of sleep than "deeper" stages; and they can be
elicited by auditory stimuli, supporting the idea that they are states
of increased arousal. Conversely, eliciting a large number of them
seems to reduce the number of spontaneously occurring ones, so that
their total incidence throughout the night is preserved (Ehrhart and
Muzet, 1974 ); they do not reset the sleep cycle; and they are rarely
recalled by the sleeper after awakening, supporting the idea that they
are nevertheless a natural part of sleep. These microarousals are
likely to be the human analog of S-SIA; like microarousals, perhaps
S-SIA episodes are simply transient states of relatively heightened
arousal that occur during normal sleep.
What, then, is the functional significance of SIA? Perhaps the most
reasonable suggestion, based on the available evidence, is that SIA is
a state in which the animal takes in and processes information from the
sensorium without immediately acting on it. In contrast, the theta
state occurs when information is actively used to guide ongoing
locomotor behavior, and the LIA state occurs when information from the
sensorium is either ignored or at least less deeply processed than in
the other states. This study shows that SIA is not, as might have been
thought, a rarely occurring curiosity but rather is comparable in
prevalence to the LIA and theta states, and it provides a compelling
functional correlate of its neural activity.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
Received July 2, 2001; revised Oct. 30, 2001; accepted Nov. 20, 2001.
This material is based on work supported by National Institute of
Mental Health Grant 2R37MH046823-11A1 (B.L.M.) and National Science
Foundation Grant IRI-9720350 (W.E.S.), the University of Pittsburgh,
the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and a National Science
Foundation Graduate Fellowship (B.J.). We thank György
Buzsáki for his comments on an early draft of this document.
Correspondence should be addressed to William E. Skaggs, Department of
Neuroscience, 446 Crawford Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh,
PA 15260. E-mail: skaggs{at}bns.pitt.edu.
 |
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