Whole-body procedural learning benefits from targeted memory reactivation in REM sleep and task-related dreaming

Picard-Deland, Claudia; Aumont, Tomy; Samson-Richer, Arnaud; Paquette, Tyna; Nielsen, Toré

doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107460

Cited by 29 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 165 publications

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“…These findings align with theories and evidence that dreaming participates in functions of learning, rehearsal and long-term memory consolidation [39,[63][64][65]. Accordingly, one frequently discussed possibility is that dreaming about recently learned information or skills is an integral part of the memory reactivations thought to underlie sleep-dependent memory consolidation [25,39,64].…”

Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Finally, while LIDs may inform our understanding of memory processes related to dreaming, the lab experience may also compete with other tasks being investigated; the lab experience may even be prioritized above other experiences, including experimental learning tasks that participants complete before sleep. In line with this, recent studies have found that, within a single protocol, lab-incorporations and specific task-incorporations rarely occur within one and the same dream [3,25]. This evidence suggests that incorporation of the lab into dreams may interfere with the desired incorporation of more targeted learning tasks.…”

Section: Methodological and Fundamental Implications Of Lidsmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…between 2006 and 2019 [3,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. All participants gave signed informed consent for laboratory polysomnography and for the recording and analysis of their dream content; all protocols were approved by the local ethics committee; secondary analysis of this database was approved as part of a larger project assessing the validity of text-mining for dream content analysis.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…One possibility concerns the time-dependence of memory processing. Memory reactivations during sleep are considered to be a time-sensitive component of memory consolidation that may also implicate dream reactivations of specific memory contents [25,38,39]. Day-residue memory sources are known to be common in dreams (65-70%, see review in [18]) and in the present context may have favored reactivations of lab memories that occurred almost exclusively immediately prior to sleep.…”

Section: Lab Incorporations In Dreams Are Commonmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dreaming of the sleep lab

2021

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The phenomenon of dreaming about the laboratory when participating in a sleep study is common. The content of such dreams draws upon episodic memory fragments of the participant’s lab experience, generally, experimenters, electrodes, the lab setting, and experimental tasks. However, as common as such dreams are, they have rarely been given a thorough quantitative or qualitative treatment. Here we assessed 528 dreams (N = 343 participants) collected in a Montreal sleep lab to 1) evaluate state and trait factors related to such dreams, and 2) investigate the phenomenology of lab incorporations using a new scoring system. Lab incorporations occurred in over a third (35.8%) of all dreams and were especially likely to occur in REM sleep (44.2%) or from morning naps (48.4%). They tended to be related to higher depression scores, but not to sex, nightmare-proneness or anxiety. Common themes associated with lab incorporation were: Meta-dreaming, including lucid dreams and false awakenings (40.7%), Sensory incorporations (27%), Wayfinding to, from or within the lab (24.3%), Sleep as performance (19.6%), Friends/Family in the lab (15.9%) and Being an object of observation (12.2%). Finally, 31.7% of the lab incorporation dreams included relative projections into a near future (e.g., the experiment having been completed), but very few projections into the past (2.6%). Results clarify sleep stage and sleep timing factors associated with dreamed lab incorporations. Phenomenological findings further reveal both the typical and unique ways in which lab memory elements are incorporated de novo into dreaming. Identified themes point to frequent social and skillful dream scenarios that entail monitoring of one’s current state (in the lab) and projection of the self into dream environments elaborated around local space and time. The findings have implications for understanding fundamental dream formation mechanisms but also for appreciating both the advantages and methodological pitfalls of conducting laboratory-based dream collection.

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Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Methodological and Fundamental Implications Of Lidsmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lab Incorporations In Dreams Are Commonmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dreaming of the sleep lab

2021

Self Cite

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“…Cue presentations started after ~4 min of stable SWS and a minimum of 10 min of sleep had elapsed (STIM‐NREM group) or after ~4 min of stable REM sleep and a minimum of 30 min of total sleep had elapsed (STIM‐REM group). Stimulation was paused upon observation of sleep arousals and was restarted when SWS or REM sleep re‐emerged (see Picard‐Deland et al, in press, for more details on TMR administration for the sleep and wake groups). Four participants in the STIM‐NREM group were also partly stimulated in N2, with 67%, 58%, 48% and 92% of the tones being played in N2 and the remaining tones in SWS.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeted memory reactivation has a sleep stage‐specific delayed effect on dream content

Picard-Deland

Nielsen

2021

Journal of Sleep Research

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Summary Although new learning is known to reappear in later dream scenarios, the timing of such reappearances remains unclear. Sometimes, references to new learning occur relatively quickly, 1 day post‐learning (day‐residue effect); at other times there may be a substantive delay, 5–7 days, before such references appear (dream‐lag effect). We studied temporal delays in dream reactivation following the learning of a virtual reality (VR) flying task using 10‐day home sleep/dream logs, and how these might be influenced by targeted memory reactivation (TMR). Participants were exposed twice to a VR task in the sleep laboratory; once before and once after a 2‐hr opportunity to nap (n = 65) or to read (n = 32). Auditory cues associated with the VR task were replayed in either wake, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, slow‐wave sleep (SWS) or were not replayed. Although we previously showed that TMR cueing did not have an immediate effect on dream content, in the present study we extend these results by showing that TMR in sleep has instead a delayed effect on task–dream reactivations: participants dreamed more about the task 1–2 days later when TMR was applied in REM sleep and 5–6 days later when it was applied in SWS sleep, compared to participants with no cueing. Findings may help explain the temporal relationships between dream and memory reactivations and clarify the occurrence of day‐residue and dream‐lag phenomena.

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Reap while you sleep: Consolidation of memories differs by how they were sown

Antony

Schechtman

2023

Hippocampus

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Newly formed memories are spontaneously reactivated during sleep, leading to their strengthening. This reactivation process can be manipulated by reinstating learning-related stimuli during sleep, a technique termed targeted memory reactivation. Numerous studies have found that delivering cues during sleep improves memory for simple associations, in which one cue reactivates one tested memory. However, real-life memories often live in rich, complex networks of associations. In this review, we will examine recent forays into investigating how targeted sleep reactivation affects memories within complex paradigms, in which one cue can reactivate multiple tested memories. A common theme across studies is that reactivation consequences do not merely depend on whether memories reside in complex arrangements, but on how memories interact with one another during acquisition. We therefore emphasize how intricate study design details that alter the nature of learning and/or participant intentions impact the outcomes of sleep reactivation. In some cases, complex networks of memories interact harmoniously to bring about mutual memory benefits; in other cases, memories may interact antagonistically and produce selective impairments in retrieval. Ultimately, although this burgeoning area of research has yet to be systematically explored, results suggest that the fate of reactivated stimuli within complex arrangements depends on how they were learned.

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Whole-body procedural learning benefits from targeted memory reactivation in REM sleep and task-related dreaming

Cited by 29 publications

References 165 publications

Dreaming of the sleep lab

Dreaming of the sleep lab

Targeted memory reactivation has a sleep stage‐specific delayed effect on dream content

Reap while you sleep: Consolidation of memories differs by how they were sown

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