Sleep Releases Action-Mode Network Revealed by Human Connectome

Sleep is an essential biological process that restores the brain. Although numerous advances have been made in uncovering the circuits regulating the sleep-wake cycle, the sleep-related dynamic reconfiguration of brain functional connectome topography remains unknown. Here, we collected simultaneous electroencephalogram and functional magnetic resonance imaging data, along with multiple behavioral assessments, from 130 healthy adults during nocturnal sleep. This rich dataset enabled us to construct a large-scale, sleep-state-dependent suite of system-level brain atlases and to establish their associations with sleep quality and pressure. We found that the action-mode network acts as a highly dynamic system that contracts as sleep deepens, most prominent in subcortical structures. Similar contractions were observed in humans and macaques under anesthesia, reflecting cross-species homologues of network reorganization during low-arousal states. Furthermore, the topological reconfiguration of the action-mode network is a stable biological marker that distinguishes sleep stages, reflects sleep quality, and predicts sleep pressure. Together, our work identifies the action-mode network as a dynamic core that reconfigures across the sleep-wake cycle, potentially serving as a neuro-target for intervening sleep disorders and tracking brain restoration.