Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive Maps
Accumulating evidence suggests that sleep, and particularly Slow-Wave-Sleep (SWS), helps the implicit and explicit extraction of regularities within memories that were encoded in a previous wake period. Sleep following training on virtual navigation was also shown to improve performance in subsequen...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00404/full |
| _version_ | 1818032446362353664 |
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| author | Itamar Lerner Mark A. Gluck |
| author_facet | Itamar Lerner Mark A. Gluck |
| author_sort | Itamar Lerner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Accumulating evidence suggests that sleep, and particularly Slow-Wave-Sleep (SWS), helps the implicit and explicit extraction of regularities within memories that were encoded in a previous wake period. Sleep following training on virtual navigation was also shown to improve performance in subsequent navigation tests. Some studies propose that this sleep-effect on navigation is based on explicit recognition of landmarks; however, it is possible that SWS-dependent extraction of implicit spatiotemporal regularities contributes as well. To examine this possibility, we administered a novel virtual navigation task in which participants were required to walk through a winding corridor and then choose one of five marked doors to exit. Unknown to participants, the markings on the correct door reflected the corridor’s shape (from a bird’s eye view). Detecting this regularity negates the need to find the exit by trial and error. Participants performed the task twice a day for a week, while their overnight sleep was monitored. We found that the more time participants spent in SWS across the week, the better they were able to implicitly extract the hidden regularity. In contrast, the few participants that explicitly realized the regularity did not rely on SWS to do so. Moreover, the SWS effect was strictly at the trait-level: Baseline levels of SWS prior to the experimental week could predict success just as well, but day-to-day variations in SWS did not predict day-to-day improvements. We propose that our findings indicate SWS facilitates implicit integration of new information into cognitive maps, possibly through compressed memory replay. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T06:07:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-580688c99ddc4b14915ee988788b144c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T06:07:30Z |
| publishDate | 2018-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-580688c99ddc4b14915ee988788b144c2022-12-22T01:59:39ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612018-10-011210.3389/fnhum.2018.00404417552Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive MapsItamar LernerMark A. GluckAccumulating evidence suggests that sleep, and particularly Slow-Wave-Sleep (SWS), helps the implicit and explicit extraction of regularities within memories that were encoded in a previous wake period. Sleep following training on virtual navigation was also shown to improve performance in subsequent navigation tests. Some studies propose that this sleep-effect on navigation is based on explicit recognition of landmarks; however, it is possible that SWS-dependent extraction of implicit spatiotemporal regularities contributes as well. To examine this possibility, we administered a novel virtual navigation task in which participants were required to walk through a winding corridor and then choose one of five marked doors to exit. Unknown to participants, the markings on the correct door reflected the corridor’s shape (from a bird’s eye view). Detecting this regularity negates the need to find the exit by trial and error. Participants performed the task twice a day for a week, while their overnight sleep was monitored. We found that the more time participants spent in SWS across the week, the better they were able to implicitly extract the hidden regularity. In contrast, the few participants that explicitly realized the regularity did not rely on SWS to do so. Moreover, the SWS effect was strictly at the trait-level: Baseline levels of SWS prior to the experimental week could predict success just as well, but day-to-day variations in SWS did not predict day-to-day improvements. We propose that our findings indicate SWS facilitates implicit integration of new information into cognitive maps, possibly through compressed memory replay.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00404/fullsleepslow-wave-sleepSWSmemory consolidationinsightvirtual navigation |
| spellingShingle | Itamar Lerner Mark A. Gluck Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive Maps Frontiers in Human Neuroscience sleep slow-wave-sleep SWS memory consolidation insight virtual navigation |
| title | Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive Maps |
| title_full | Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive Maps |
| title_fullStr | Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive Maps |
| title_full_unstemmed | Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive Maps |
| title_short | Individual Differences in Slow-Wave-Sleep Predict Acquisition of Full Cognitive Maps |
| title_sort | individual differences in slow wave sleep predict acquisition of full cognitive maps |
| topic | sleep slow-wave-sleep SWS memory consolidation insight virtual navigation |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00404/full |
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