Reactivation with reminders that do or do not labilize declarative memory in humans: short nap vs. 8 hours of sleep

FORCATO CECILIA; WEBER FREDERIK; BORN JAN; DIEKELMANN SUSANNE

Congreso; 9th IBRO World Congress; 2015

Memory reactivation exertsdifferent effects on declarative memories depending on whether reminders arepresented during wakefulness or sleep. In the wake state reactivation labilizesmemories requiring reconsolidation, whereas reactivation during sleep promotesmemory stabilization. Here we tested whether only those reminders that inducelabilization during wakefulness promote memory stabilization during sleep. Inexperiment 1, we show that only one of two different reminders labilizesmemories during wakefulness. In experiment 2, both types of reminders werepresented during slow wave sleep (SWS) within a 40-minute sleep and after thatwere awakened or allowed to sleep for 8 hours (experiment 3). After 40 min ofsleep both reminders producedmemory stabilization compared to a no reminder condition. However, after 8 hours of sleeponly the reminder that labilized memories during wakefulness showedstabilization of the memory after sleep. We discuss the possibility that short-termboth reminders produce hippocampal strengthening, but only the reminder thatlabilizes the memory successfully transfers information to the neocortex strengtheningthe memory for long term.