High-density electroencephalography as an innovative tool to explore sleep physiology and sleep related disorders

High density EEG represents a promising tool to achieve new insights regarding sleep physiology and pathology. It combines the advantages of an EEG technique as an optimal temporal resolution with the spatial resolution of the neuroimaging. So far its application in sleep research contributed to better characterize some of the peculiar microstructural figures of sleep such as spindles and K-complexes, and to understand the fundamental relationships between sleep and synaptic plasticity, learning and consciousness. Its application is not limited to neurophysiology, being recently also applied to study some sleep related psychiatric and neurological disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and stroke. adding some interesting new pieces in the pathophysiological puzzle of these diseases. Due to its non-invasive, repetitive and reliable tempo-spatial resolution it is reasonable that the field of application of this tool will be soon enlarged to other areas of neuroscience. The present review aims to offer a complete overview regarding the use of high density EEG over the last decade in sleep research and sleep medicine, including its possible future perspective.