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Authors & Affiliations
Peter Gombkoto, Tansel Baran Yasar, Alexei Vyssotski, Angeliki Vavladeli, Linus Meienberg, Valter Lundegardh, Wolfger von der Behrens, Mehmet Fatih Yanik
Abstract
Cortico-hippocampal interactions during hippocampal sharp-wave ripples (SPW-Rs) play a crucial role in memory consolidation. Hippocampal-dependent memories undergo replay during SPW-Rs, facilitating coordinated ensemble reactivation in the neocortex. This orchestrated mechanism is essential for transferring memory traces from the hippocampus to long-term storage in the neocortex. Following memory consolidation in the neocortex, it is hypothesized that downstream neuronal ensembles are stabilized in diverse cortical regions. The stability of neuronal ensembles across several months has not been investigated. To address this, we conducted the most stable extracellular electrophysiological recordings facilitated by our novel Ultra-Flexible Tentacle Electrodes (UFTE) to explore cortico-hippocampal coupling during SPW-Rs in freely moving rats over three months. We detected distinct cell ensemble patterns characterized by repeated neuronal co-activations within the hippocampus, retrosplenial cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex.We investigated the relationship between the strength of ensemble activation by SWRs and the ensemble lifetime during the three months. We found that 83.3% percent of the ensembles exhibiting higher activation strength during SPW-Rs did not demonstrate long lifetimes, exclusively consisting of hippocampal ensembles. In contrast, mixed neuronal ensembles with significantly longer lifetimes showed less tuning to SPW-Rs. Also ensemble activation strength was modulated by distinct SPW-Rs events. Furthermore, we observed distinct responses of neuronal ensembles to slow- and high-frequency SPW-Rs across various cortical regions.The use of UFTEs for three-month-long recordings of multi-areal ensembles marks a significant advancement, allowing for an in-depth exploration of the dynamics of cortico-hippocampal interactions during SPW-Rs and their role in memory consolidation processes.