Integrity of corpus callosum is essential for the cross-hemispheric propagation of sleep slow waves: a high-density EEG study in split-brain patients

The slow waves of NREM-sleep (0.5-4Hz) reflect experience-dependent plasticity and play a direct role in the restorative functions of sleep. Importantly, slow waves behave as traveling waves and their propagation is assumed to reflect the structural properties of white matter connections. Based on this assumption, the corpus callosum (CC) may represent the main responsible for cross-hemispheric slow wave propagation. To verify this hypothesis, here we studied a group of patients who underwent total callosotomy due to drug-resistant epilepsy. Overnight high-density (hd)-EEG recordings (256 electrodes) were performed in five totally callosotomized in-patients (CP; 40-53y, 2F), in three control non-callosotomized neurological in-patients (NP; 44-66y, 2F, 1M epileptic), and in an additional sample of 24 healthy adult subjects (HS; 20-47y, 13F). Data were inspected to select NREM-sleep epochs and artefactual or non-physiological activity was rejected. Slow waves were detected using an automated algorithm and their properties and propagation patterns were computed. For each slow wave parameter and for each patient, the relative z-score and the corresponding p-value were calculated with respect to the distribution represented by the HS-group. Group differences were considered significant only when a Bonferroni corrected P