Are Spatial Memories Strengthened in the Human Hippocampus during Slow Wave Sleep?

In rats, the firing sequences observed in hippocampal ensembles during spatial learning are replayed during subsequent sleep, suggesting a role for posttraining sleep periods in the offline processing of spatial memories. Here, using regional cerebral blood flow measurements, we show that, in humans...

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Published inNeuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 535 - 545
Main Authors Peigneux, Philippe, Laureys, Steven, Fuchs, Sonia, Collette, Fabienne, Perrin, Fabien, Reggers, Jean, Phillips, Christophe, Degueldre, Christian, Del Fiore, Guy, Aerts, Joël, Luxen, André, Maquet, Pierre
Format Journal Article Web Resource
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Elsevier Inc 28.10.2004
Elsevier Limited
Cell Press
Subjects
Adult
Animal memory
Behavior
Brain
Brain Mapping
Electroencephalography - methods
Electromyography - methods
Electrooculography - methods
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
Hypotheses
Male
Memory - physiology
Neurosciences & behavior
Neurosciences & comportement
Polysomnography
Positron-Emission Tomography - methods
Rodents
Sciences sociales & comportementales, psychologie
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Sleep - physiology
Social & behavioral sciences, psychology
Spatial Behavior - physiology
Studies
Wakefulness - physiology
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Summary:In rats, the firing sequences observed in hippocampal ensembles during spatial learning are replayed during subsequent sleep, suggesting a role for posttraining sleep periods in the offline processing of spatial memories. Here, using regional cerebral blood flow measurements, we show that, in humans, hippocampal areas that are activated during route learning in a virtual town are likewise activated during subsequent slow wave sleep. Most importantly, we found that the amount of hippocampal activity expressed during slow wave sleep positively correlates with the improvement of performance in route retrieval on the next day. These findings suggest that learning-dependent modulation in hippocampal activity during human sleep reflects the offline processing of recent episodic and spatial memory traces, which eventually leads to the plastic changes underlying the subsequent improvement in performance.
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scopus-id:2-s2.0-7044260807
ISSN:0896-6273
1097-4199
1097-4199
DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.10.007