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Sleep-dependent memory consolidation and its implications for psychiatry

Abstract

Both sleep disturbance and memory impairment are very common in psychiatric disorders. Since sleep has been shown to play a role in the process of transferring newly acquired information into long-term memory, i.e., consolidation, it is important to highlight this link in the context of psychiatric disorders. Along these lines, after providing a brief overview of healthy human sleep, current neurobiological models on sleep-dependent memory consolidation and resultant opportunities to manipulate the memory consolidation process, recent findings on sleep disturbances and sleep-dependent memory consolidation in patients with insomnia, major depression, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder are systematically reviewed. Furthermore, possible underlying neuropathologies and their implications on therapeutic strategies are discussed. This review aims at sensitizing the reader for recognizing sleep disturbances as a potential contributor to cognitive deficits in several disorders, a fact which is often overlooked up to date.

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Notes

  1. The Role of REM sleep in memory consolidation, particularly in the consolidation of complex skills, has been challenged rather to depend on the paradigm used [see(Ackermann and Rasch (2014)] or on the learning potential of the subject (Smith et al. 2004).

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Correspondence to Monique Goerke.

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Goerke, M., Müller, N.G. & Cohrs, S. Sleep-dependent memory consolidation and its implications for psychiatry. J Neural Transm 124, 163–178 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-015-1476-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-015-1476-3

Keywords

  • Sleep
  • Memory consolidation
  • Insomnia
  • Major depression
  • Schizophrenia
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder