Brief Sleep After Learning Keeps Emotional Memories Alive for Years

Wagner, Ullrich; Hallschmid, Manfred; Rasch, Björn; Born, Jan

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.03.061

Cited by 260 publications

(222 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

210

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Retrieval of emotional (relative to neutral) material several hours after encoding is enhanced if the interval contains an episode of sleep (Hu et al, 2006;Payne et al, 2008;Nishida et al, 2009), especially rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (Wagner et al, 2001), rather than a period of wake. This sleep-dependent advantage persists 4 years later (Wagner et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Sleep Promotes the Neural Reorganization of Remote Emotional Memory

Sterpenich¹,

Albouy²,

Darsaud³

et al. 2009

J. Neurosci.

197

131

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sleep promotes memory consolidation, a process by which fresh and labile memories are reorganized into stable memories. Emotional memories are usually better remembered than neutral ones, even at long retention delays. In this study, we assessed the influence of sleep during the night after encoding onto the neural correlates of recollection of emotional memories 6 months later. After incidental encoding of emotional and neutral pictures, one-half of the subjects were allowed to sleep, whereas the others were totally sleep deprived, on the first postencoding night. During subsequent retest, functional magnetic resonance imaging sessions taking place 3 d and 6 months later, subjects made recognition memory judgments about the previously studied and new pictures. Between these retest sessions, all participants slept as usual at home. At 6 month retest, recollection was associated with significantly larger responses in subjects allowed to sleep than in sleep-deprived subjects, in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) and the precuneus, two areas involved in memory retrieval, as well as in the extended amygdala and the occipital cortex, two regions the response of which was modulated by emotion at encoding. Moreover, the functional connectivity was enhanced between the vMPFC and the precuneus, as well as between the extended amygdala, the vMPFC, and the occipital cortex in the sleep group relative to the sleep-deprived group. These results suggest that sleep during the first postencoding night profoundly influences the long-term systems-level consolidation of emotional memory and modifies the functional segregation and integration associated with recollection in the long term.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Sleep Promotes the Neural Reorganization of Remote Emotional Memory

Sterpenich¹,

Albouy²,

Darsaud³

et al. 2009

J. Neurosci.

197

131

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A possible explanation is that sleep after extinction learning initiates a process of stabilization of the new extinction memory trace, which continues to fully develop over multiple nights. Beneficial effects of sleep on emotional learning have been observed up to 4 years (Wagner et al 2006). In addition, the immediate effect of sleep on generalization of extinction (Pace-Schott et al 2009) might help to transfer the positive effects of exposure treatment to the real world and 'real' spiders, resulting in most pronounced effects during follow-up testing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Effects of a 3-h nap following emotional learning are even detectable 4 years later (Wagner et al 2006). In addition to strengthening of the content of the emotional memory, sleep plays an important role in reducing the degree of emotional arousal associated with the memory (Walker & van der Helm, 2009;Pace-Schott et al 2011;van der Helm et al 2011b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep enhances exposure therapy

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Sleep benefits memory consolidation. Here, we tested the beneficial effect of sleep on memory consolidation following exposure psychotherapy of phobic anxiety. Method: A total of 40 individuals afflicted with spider phobia according to DSM-IV underwent a one-session virtual reality exposure treatment and either slept for 90 min or stayed awake afterwards. Results: Sleep following exposure therapy compared with wakefulness led to better reductions in self-reported fear (p = 0.045, d = 0.47) and catastrophic spider-related cognitions (p = 0.026, d = 0.53) during approaching a live spider, both tested after 1 week. Both reductions were associated with greater percentages of stage 2 sleep. Conclusions: Our results indicate that sleep following successful psychotherapy, such as exposure therapy, improves therapeutic effectiveness, possibly by strengthening new non-fearful memory traces established during therapy. These findings offer an important non-invasive alternative to recent attempts to facilitate therapeutic memory extinction and consolidation processes with pharmacological or behavioral interventions.

show abstract

“…Further supporting a role of sleep in emotional regulation, the consolidation of emotional memories, including conditioned responses, is strengthened by a period of sleep following the emotional experience, particularly for hippocampus-dependent emotional memories (Sterpenich et al, 2007(Sterpenich et al, , 2009Wagner et al, 2001Wagner et al, , 2006Wamsley & Antrobus, 2009). Animal (Silvestri, 2005) and human studies (Pace-Schott et al, 2009) also suggest that the extinction of a conditioned response is affected by sleep, mainly in a hippocampus-independent manner (i.e.…”

Section: Integration Of Brain Imaging and Dream Datamentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Activation in these regions suggest that memory consolidation processes, in particular emotional memories, may occur during REM sleep (Hu, Stylos-Allan, & Walker, 2006;Nishida, Pearsall, Buckner, & Walker, 2009;Sterpenich et al, 2009;Wagner, Gais, & Born, 2001;Wagner, Hallschmid, Rasch, & Born, 2006;Walker, 2009). While a large body of data support the involvement of sleep in memory (for review, see Dang-Vu, Desseilles, Peigneux, & Maquet, 2006), the relationship between processes related to memory consolidation and those underlying dream experience is still poorly understood (e.g.…”

Section: Distribution Of Brain Activity During Rem Sleepmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive and emotional processes during dreaming: A neuroimaging view

Desseilles

Dang‐Vu

Sterpenich

et al. 2011

Consciousness and Cognition

141

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tDream is a state of consciousness characterized by internally-generated sensory, cognitive and emotional experiences occurring during sleep. Dream reports tend to be particularly abundant, with complex, emotional, and perceptually vivid experiences after awakenings from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This is why our current knowledge of the cerebral correlates of dreaming, mainly derives from studies of REM sleep. Neuroimaging results show that REM sleep is characterized by a specific pattern of regional brain activity. We demonstrate that this heterogeneous distribution of brain activity during sleep explains many typical features in dreams. Reciprocally, specific dream characteristics suggest the activation of selective brain regions during sleep. Such an integration of neuroimaging data of human sleep, mental imagery, and the content of dreams is critical for current models of dreaming; it also provides neurobiological support for an implication of sleep and dreaming in some important functions such as emotional regulation.

show abstract

Brief Sleep After Learning Keeps Emotional Memories Alive for Years

Cited by 260 publications

References 30 publications

Sleep Promotes the Neural Reorganization of Remote Emotional Memory

Sleep Promotes the Neural Reorganization of Remote Emotional Memory

Sleep enhances exposure therapy

Cognitive and emotional processes during dreaming: A neuroimaging view

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About