Understanding the roles of central and autonomic activity during sleep in the improvement of working memory and episodic memory

Abstract

The last decade has seen significant progress in identifying sleep mechanisms that support cognition. Most of these studies focus on the link between electrophysiological events of the central nervous system during sleep and improvements in different cognitive domains, while the dynamic shifts of the autonomic nervous system across sleep have been largely overlooked. Recent studies, however, have identified significant contributions of autonomic inputs during sleep to cognition. Yet, there remain considerable gaps in understanding how central and autonomic systems work together during sleep to facilitate cognitive improvement. In this article we examine the evidence for the independent and interactive roles of central and autonomic activities during sleep and wake in cognitive processing. We specifically focus on the prefrontal–subcortical structures supporting working memory and mechanisms underlying the formation of hippocampal-dependent episodic memory. Our Slow Oscillation Switch Model identifies separate and competing underlying mechanisms supporting the two memory domains at the synaptic, systems, and behavioral levels. We propose that sleep is a competitive arena in which both memory domains vie for limited resources, experimentally demonstrated when boosting one system leads to a functional trade-off in electrophysiological and behavioral outcomes. As these findings inevitably lead to further questions, we suggest areas of future research to better understand how the brain and body interact to support a wide range of cognitive domains during a single sleep episode.

Altered norepinephrine transmission after spatial learning impairs sleep-mediated memory consolidation in rats

“…The spatial memory deficiency in drug-treated rats was evident in a higher number of WM and RM errors. Previous studies pointed to a beneficial effect of NREM sleep on WM, possibly due to enhanced SO activity and potentiation of prefrontal-autonomic networks 45,46 . Indeed, parasympathetic activity is increased during NREM sleep and is likely to promote the NE release from the LC via vagal inputs 45 .…”

“…Previous studies pointed to a beneficial effect of NREM sleep on WM, possibly due to enhanced SO activity and potentiation of prefrontal-autonomic networks 45,46 . Indeed, parasympathetic activity is increased during NREM sleep and is likely to promote the NE release from the LC via vagal inputs 45 . Thus, coerulear-SO coupling during NREM sleep 35 might support next-day prefrontal-dependent WM performance 45 .…”

“…Indeed, parasympathetic activity is increased during NREM sleep and is likely to promote the NE release from the LC via vagal inputs 45 . Thus, coerulear-SO coupling during NREM sleep 35 might support next-day prefrontal-dependent WM performance 45 . Our results indirectly support this hypothesis as pharmacological suppression of the LC-NE activity during the post-learning period may have indeed affected the prefrontal function that is essential for WM capacity.…”

The functions of sleep: A cognitive neuroscience perspective

“…Chen, Zhang et al. ( 16 ) provide novel insights into the overlooked influence of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) on sleep-dependent memory mechanisms. The ANS shows clear physiologic shifts across wake and sleep stages and has recently been implicated in sleep-dependent cognition ( 17 ).…”

How sleep shapes what we remember—and forget

“…“What’s happening in the body during encoding is incredibly important for how the brain decides what memories [it stores],” she says. Her group has found evidence that measures of autonomic activity during sleep, in some cases, may reflect memory performance better than EEG signals alone ( 15 ).…”