The oscillatory biology of sleep: Linkage to dementia
Summary
During wakefulness, neuromodulators operate largely independently to support behavior and cognition. By contrast, sleep reorganizes their activity into a coordinated brain rhythm. During sleep, the major neuromodulators-norepinephrine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and dopamine-exhibit synchronized fluctuations with a periodicity of ~50 seconds. These oscillations appear as recurrent bursts of fast (10 to 30 hertz) electroencephalography activity and are phase-coupled to cerebrospinal fluid fl
Content
# The oscillatory biology of sleep: Linkage to dementia
*Published: 2026 May 21*
During wakefulness, neuromodulators operate largely independently to support
behavior and cognition. By contrast, sleep reorganizes their activity into a
coordinated brain rhythm. During sleep, the major
neuromodulators-norepinephrine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and dopamine-exhibit
synchronized fluctuations with a periodicity of ~50 seconds. These oscillations
appear as recurrent bursts of fast (10 to 30 hertz) electroencephalography
activity and are phase-coupled to cerebrospinal fluid flow. Neuromodulators are
vasoactive agents and drive slow vasomotion, which provide the mechanical force
that supports glymphatic clearance of metabolic waste. Disruption of
neuromodulator signaling, as seen in psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular
disease, aging, or with commonly prescribed drugs, impairs clearance of
neurotoxic proteins, including amyloid-β and tau. Failure of this evolutionarily
conserved brain rhythm may therefore represent a previously unrecognized
mechanistic pathway linking diverse disorders with sleep disturbances to
increased dementia risk.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aeg2276