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Open questions in sleep and memory research

Offene Fragen in der Schlaf- und Gedächtnisforschung

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Somnologie - Schlafforschung und Schlafmedizin Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Sleep is well known to facilitate the consolidation of newly acquired memories. Although this effect has been extensively studied in the past two decades, there are still a number of issues that remain unresolved. In this article, some of the open questions in the field of sleep and memory research are discussed. Particularly, the psychological conditions that determine sleep-dependent memory consolidation as well as possible underlying physiological mechanisms are considered. With regard to the psychological conditions, it will be discussed to which extent the beneficial effect of sleep for memory consolidation depends on the type of learning task, type of retrieval test, relevance of the learning material for the individual, optimum temporal delay between learning and sleep, and amount of sleep. Concerning the physiological mechanisms, this article focuses on the role of different sleep stages and sleep parameters (e.g., sleep spindles, slow oscillations), as well as on the functional importance of memory reactivations (“neuronal replay”) and synaptic downscaling during sleep.

Zusammenfassung

Es ist gut belegt, dass Schlaf die Konsolidierung von neu erworbenen Gedächtnisinhalten fördert. Obwohl dieser Effekt in den letzten 2 Jahrzehnten ausgiebig untersucht wurde, gibt es dennoch zahlreiche Fragen, die bisher ungeklärt sind. Dieser Beitrag diskutiert einige der offenen Fragen auf dem Gebiet der Schlaf- und Gedächtnisforschung. Insbesondere werden dabei die psychologischen Bedingungen der schlafabhängigen Gedächtniskonsolidierung, sowie deren zugrunde liegende physiologische Mechanismen betrachtet. Die psychologischen Bedingungen betreffend wird insbesondere diskutiert, inwiefern der gedächtnisfördernde Effekt des Schlafs abhängig ist von der Art der verwendeten Lernaufgabe, der Art des Gedächtnisabruftests, der Relevanz der gelernten Inhalte, dem optimalen zeitlichen Abstand zwischen Lernen und Schlaf sowie der Menge des Schlafs. In Bezug auf die physiologischen Mechanismen wird vornehmlich auf die Rolle verschiedener Schlafstadien und Schlafparameter (z. B. Schlafspindeln, „slow oscillations“), sowie auf die funktionale Bedeutung von Gedächtnisreaktivierungen (neuronales Replay) und synaptischem Downscaling während des Schlafs fokussiert.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Ines Wilhelm and Jan Born for valuable contributions to earlier versions of this article, and Gordon Feld for thorough language editing. This work was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 654 ‘Plasticity and Sleep’).

Conflict of interest

The author declares there are no conflicts of interest.

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  1. Department of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University Tübingen, FiN-Gebäude, Ebene 6, Otfried-Müller-Str. 25, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    S. Diekelmann

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Diekelmann, S. Open questions in sleep and memory research. Somnologie 17, 21–27 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11818-013-0600-6

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