The Role of Sleep in Learning and Memory

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About this Research Topic

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Background

Sleep is generally believed to prepare our brains for new learning and consolidate recently acquired memories. However, whether sleep is both necessary and sufficient for learning and memory remains a hotly debated empirical question. Advances in the basic, cognitive and computational neurosciences have helped us identify potential sleep-related mechanisms supporting learning and memory. However, we have only scratched the surface of understanding how the sleeping brain acts to, on the one hand, free-up synaptic space for new learning, and on the other hand, strengthen and transform pre-existing memories. Further, little is known about why some memories, but not others, are strengthened by sleep and whether offline states that share neurobiological commonalities with sleep might equally benefit from memory consolidation. This Research Topic seeks to explore behavioral and neurobiological evidence that supports or refutes the importance of sleep for learning and memory processes. We aim to be inclusive of diverse perspectives from basic, translational, and clinical sleep science to applied work using sleep science to influence learning and memory in real-world settings.

Articles should focus on comparing sleep’s impact on learning and/or memory to other states of consciousness (e.g., active wake, sleep deprivation, quiet wake, mind-wandering, meditation), identify psychological or neural mechanisms supporting learning and/or memory that are unique to sleep, or explore sleep-related interventions aimed at improving learning and/or memory. We also welcome investigations aimed at understanding how sleep might uniquely alter qualitative aspects of memories, whether in laboratory-based experiments or in the field – a topic that has received little attention. Finally, we are interested in studies measuring how learning and memory are impacted by many nights of sleep or sleep loss.

Submissions to this Research Topic can include original research articles, reviews of research related to the areas listed below (or other areas), and opinion articles addressing current controversies, innovations or areas in need of greater research focus in the field of sleep, learning and memory. Topics that may be covered in this Research Topic include:

● How sleep impacts learning and memory compared to other states of consciousness (e.g., active wake, sleep deprivation, quiet wake, mind-wandering, meditation)

● Psychological or neural mechanisms during learning that interact with sleep to promote memory consolidation

● Unique physiological correlates (e.g., sleep oscillations, decoded EEG patterns, fMRI activity or connectivity, psychophysiological activity) of sleep-related memory consolidation

● Distinguishing the distinct effects of sleep on the different phases of memory processing (i.e., encoding, early consolidation, extended consolidation, retrieval, and reconsolidation)

● Novel approaches to manipulate sleep to benefit learning or memory using methods such as targeted memory reactivation, non-invasive brain stimulation (e.g., auditory stimulation, tDCS/tACS, TMS), and dream manipulations (e.g. targeted dream incubation, lucidity, content-relevant dream recall)

● Field studies of sleep and/or sleep interventions to impact learning and memory in real-world settings (e.g., how sleep shapes autobiographical memories; how sleep interventions can improve learning and memory in schools, military settings or space)

● How memories transform (qualitatively or neurally) across sleep

● How the interaction between sleep and learning changes across development and across the lifespan

● How sleep interacts with other key demographic variables (e.g., biological sex, gender, race) or disordered states (e.g., sleep, neurological or psychiatric disorders) to promote learning and memory

Keywords: Sleep, Learning, Memory, Consolidation, Polysomnography, EEG, fMRI

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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