Hippocampal ripples index the reconstruction of spatiotemporal neuronal firing patterns essential for the consolidation of memories in the cortex during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. However, it is not known whether ripples are generated in the human cortex during sleep. Here, using human intracranial recordings, we show that ~70ms long ~80Hz ripples are ubiquitous in all regions of the cortex during NREM sleep as well as waking. During waking, cortical ripples occur on local high

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... cy activity peaks. During sleep, cortical ripples occur during spindles on the down-to-upstate transition, with unit-firing patterns consistent with generation by pyramidal-interneuron feedback. Cortical ripples mark the recurrence of spatiotemporal activity patterns from preceding waking, and they group co-firing within the window of spike-timing-dependent plasticity. Thus, cortical ripples guided by sequential sleep waves may facilitate memory consolidation during NREM sleep in humans.