Thalamic dysfunction in schizophrenia suggested by whole-night deficits in slow and fast spindles

Slow waves and sleep spindles are the two main oscillations occurring during non-REM sleep. While slow oscillations are primarily generated and modulated by the cortex, sleep spindles are initiated by the thalamic reticular nucleus and regulated by thalamo-reticular and thalamo-cortical circuits. In a recent high-density EEG study, the authors found that 18 medicated schizophrenia patients had reduced sleep spindles, compared with healthy and depressed subjects, during the first non-REM episode. In the present study, the authors investigated whether spindle deficits were present in a larger sample of schizophrenia patients, were consistent across the night, were related to antipsychotic medications, and were suggestive of impairments in specific neuronal circuits.