Cairney, Scott Ashley orcid.org/0000-0002-1135-6059, Sobczak, Justyna Maria, Lindsay, Shane et al. (1 more author) (2017) Mechanisms of Memory Retrieval in Slow-Wave Sleep. Sleep. pp. 1-45. ISSN 1550-9109
Abstract
Study Objectives: Memories are strengthened during sleep. The benefits of sleep for memory can be enhanced by re-exposing the sleeping brain to auditory cues; a technique known as targeted memory reactivation (TMR). Prior studies have not assessed the nature of the retrieval mechanisms underpinning TMR: the matching process between auditory stimuli encountered during sleep and previously encoded memories. We carried out two experiments to address this issue. Methods: In Experiment 1, participants associated words with verbal and non-verbal auditory stimuli before an overnight interval in which subsets of these stimuli were replayed in slow-wave sleep. We repeated this paradigm in Experiment 2 with the single difference that the gender of the verbal auditory stimuli was switched between learning and sleep. Results: In Experiment 1, forgetting of cued (vs. non-cued) associations was reduced by TMR with verbal and non-verbal cues to similar extents. In Experiment 2, TMR with identical non-verbal cues reduced forgetting of cued (vs. non-cued) associations, replicating Experiment 1. However, TMR with non-identical verbal cues reduced forgetting of both cued and non-cued associations. Conclusions: These experiments suggest that the memory effects of TMR are influenced by the acoustic overlap between stimuli delivered at training and sleep. Our findings hint at the existence of two processing routes for memory retrieval during sleep. Whereas TMR with acoustically identical cues may reactivate individual associations via simple episodic matching, TMR with non-identical verbal cues may utilise linguistic decoding mechanisms, resulting in widespread reactivation across a broad category of memories. Keywords: Sleep, Memory, Reactivation
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Sleep Research Society 2017. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Sleep Research Society]. |
Keywords: | Sleep ,Memory,Consolidation,Reactivation,Learning |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (ESRC) ES/I038586/1 |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 18 Jul 2017 15:30 |
Last Modified: | 25 Dec 2024 00:16 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsx114 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/sleep/zsx114 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:119219 |
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