For cueing during sleep, participants received an mp3-player containing a sound file starting with 30 min silence and then 1 h of repeatedly playing Dutch words. The selection of cued words was identical during all three nights of sleep the other half of the words was never played during sleep (uncued words). During the three intervening nights in which participants slept at home in their normal sleeping environment, half of the words (60 Dutch words only) were played (cued) during sleep. 26Ī total of 66 healthy young participants were instructed to learn the same 120 Dutch-German word pairs over 4 consecutive days (See Fig. As a memory task, we used the Dutch-German vocabulary task for which we have observed memory improvements by TMR applied during sleep in the lab in five independent studies (group size n = 15, 21 n = 14, n = 13 and n = 16 22 and n = 16). Thus, the aim of this study is to test whether a simple, unsupervised TMR setup applied during sleep improves memory under real-life conditions over consecutive days. 25 Still, it remains to be shown that TMR benefits on memory also occur across multiple nights under unsupervised real-life conditions when factors such as sleep stage, pre-sleep performance level, sound volume or reactivation pausing due to arousal cannot be tightly controlled. Only one study use olfactory cues to enhance creativity in real life. However, all studies cited above have conducted TMR across a single night or nap under well-controlled laboratory conditions including online sleep monitoring by polysomnography. 9, 21, 22, 23, 24 Based on this numerous and robust empirical evidence, it is now timely to test this technique under real-life settings. 8, 9 The positive effect of TMR during sleep on memory is now well established and has been shown for a variety of memory cues such as odors, 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 sounds, 2, 15, 16, 17 melodies 18, 19, 20, or verbal material. The memory benefit of TMR can be explained by selectively biasing these neural reactivation during sleep through cues, resulting in a better consolidated trace. 1, 5 According to the active system consolidation hypothesis, 6, 7 spontaneous reactivation of neuronal memory traces in the hippocampus during NREM sleep are essential for strengthening recently acquired memory traces and their integration into cortical long-term memory stores during sleep. Originally, this technique was used to provide evidence for the theoretical assumption that spontaneous reactivation during sleep play a functional role for process of memory consolidation during sleep. When retrieval is tested after sleep, memory for items that were played during sleep (cued items) is typically better as compared to memory for items not played during sleep (uncued items). During subsequent sleep, these cues are presented again during sleep, typically during sleep stages N2 and/or N3. 3, 4 In this technique, sensory or verbal cues are paired with the learning material during an encoding phase before sleep. This technique has been termed “targeted memory reactivation” (TMR). Re-exposure to memory cues during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep improves later memory performance (e.g., 1, 2). Habituation to the TMR process as well as automatic sleep monitoring and avoidance of auditory-induced awakenings might be a precondition to successful application of TMR to language learning in real-life. Our results indicate that sleep disturbances and habituation might be critical factors for the success of unsupervised TMR in a home setting. Separate analysis per night indicated that memory benefits by TMR were significant in the entire sample in the third night only. Participants who reported general disturbances of sleep showed no benefit, while TMR specifically impaired memory in a third group who reported specific disturbances by the played words during sleep. Unsupervised TMR benefitted overall memory scores only in a subgroup of participants, who reported no disturbances by TMR during sleep. During 3 consecutive nights, 66 healthy young participants used an mp3-player to play Dutch words during sleep, without any control of sleep or awakenings by tones (unsupervised TMR). We tested whether TMR during sleep enhances Dutch-German vocabulary learning when applied during multiple nights at home in an unsupervised fashion. However, it is still unknown whether TMR also benefits memory in real-life conditions. Targeted memory reactivation (TMR) during sleep improves memory consolidation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |