Simultaneous stomach-brain electrophysiology reveals dynamic coupling in human sleep

2025 · doi:10.1101/2025.11.13.686572
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This study simultaneously recorded human EEG and EGG to reveal that gastric rhythms exhibit infraslow modulations aligned with cortical activity during NREM sleep and predict subjective sleep quality.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-16 · read from full text ⓘ

This study investigated whether gastric electrical activity shows infraslow structure and coordinated fluctuations with cortical rhythms during human sleep, using simultaneous high-density EEG and electrogastrography recordings from 60 participants across three nights. The authors found that gastric power was higher in NREM than REM and declined across sleep cycles, and that gastric rhythms exhibited intrinsic infraslow amplitude modulations (~0.007 Hz) that were amplified during NREM and aligned with infraslow changes in cortical sigma power, strongest in N3. Event-locked analyses showed transient increases in gastric amplitude following cortical slow waves, especially when slow waves were accompanied by sleep spindles. A key limitation is that the coupling was observational and tied to sleep physiology and subjective sleep quality rather than establishing mechanistic links or testing clinical gastrointestinal disorders. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

Sleep involves continuous communication between the brain and body, yet the dynamics of peripheral signals during human sleep remain poorly understood. Here we tested whether gastric electrophysiology exhibits infraslow structure and coordinated fluctuations with cortical rhythms indicative of sleep physiology. Simultaneous high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and electrogastrography (EGG) were recorded across sixty participants and three nights. Gastric power was consistently higher during NREM than REM sleep and declined across successive cycles, consistent with stage-dependent autonomic modulation of visceral activity. For the first time, we show that the gastric rhythm itself exhibits intrinsic infraslow amplitude modulations (∼0.007 Hz), which are selectively amplified during NREM sleep and temporally aligned with infraslow fluctuations in cortical sigma power, strongest during N3 sleep. Event-locked analyses further revealed transient increases in gastric amplitude following cortical slow wave oscillations, particularly when accompanied by sleep spindles. Across nights, variance in gastric infraslow amplitude predicted subjective sleep quality beyond standard polysomnographic and cardiac measures. Together, these findings position the human stomach as a peripheral oscillator whose infraslow dynamics track thalamocortical activity during sleep and predict subjective sleep quality, extending the interoceptive regulatory loop into the sleeping brain.
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Abstract Sleep involves continuous communication between the brain and body, yet the dynamics of peripheral signals during human sleep remain poorly understood. Here we tested whether gastric electrophysiology exhibits infraslow structure and coordinated fluctuations with cortical rhythms indicative of sleep physiology. Simultaneous high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and electrogastrography (EGG) were recorded across sixty participants and three nights. Gastric power was consistently higher during NREM than REM sleep and declined across successive cycles, consistent with stage-dependent autonomic modulation of visceral activity. For the first time, we show that the gastric rhythm itself exhibits intrinsic infraslow amplitude modulations (∼0.007 Hz), which are selectively amplified during NREM sleep and temporally aligned with infraslow fluctuations in cortical sigma power, strongest during N3 sleep. Event-locked analyses further revealed transient increases in gastric amplitude following cortical slow wave oscillations, particularly when accompanied by sleep spindles. Across nights, variance in gastric infraslow amplitude predicted subjective sleep quality beyond standard polysomnographic and cardiac measures. Together, these findings position the human stomach as a peripheral oscillator whose infraslow dynamics track thalamocortical activity during sleep and predict subjective sleep quality, extending the interoceptive regulatory loop into the sleeping brain. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

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