Departments of Biological Structure and Lab Medicine & Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, United States; Departments of Physiology and Psychiatry and the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
Daniela Astudillo Maya
Departments of Physiology and Psychiatry and the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
Departments of Physiology and Psychiatry and the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, United States
Sachi Desse
Departments of Physiology and Psychiatry and the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
Departments of Physiology and Psychiatry and the Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, United States
Hippocampal replay – the time-compressed, sequential reactivation of ensembles of neurons related to past experience – is a key neural mechanism of memory consolidation. Replay typically coincides with a characteristic pattern of local field potential activity, the sharp-wave ripple (SWR). Reduced SWR rates are associated with cognitive impairment in multiple models of neurodegenerative disease, suggesting that a clinically viable intervention to promote SWRs and replay would prove beneficial. We therefore developed a neurofeedback paradigm for rat subjects in which SWR detection triggered rapid positive feedback in the context of a memory-dependent task. This training protocol increased the prevalence of task-relevant replay during the targeted neurofeedback period by changing the temporal dynamics of SWR occurrence. This increase was also associated with neural and behavioral forms of compensation after the targeted period. These findings reveal short-timescale regulation of SWR generation and demonstrate that neurofeedback is an effective strategy for modulating hippocampal replay.
