Sleep Homeostasis and Cortical Synchronization: I. Modeling the Effects of Synaptic Strength on Sleep Slow Waves

Abstract

A decrease in cortical synaptic strength is sufficient to account for changes in sleep SWA and is accompanied by characteristic changes in slow-wave parameters. Experimental results from rat cortical depth recordings and human high-density EEG show similar changes in slow-wave parameters with decreasing SWA, suggesting that the underlying mechanism may indeed be a net decrease in synaptic strength.