IS SLEEP INVOLVED IN THE CONSOLIDATION AND INTEGRATION OF NEW WORDS? A REFRACTORY TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY STUDY

HERRERO NEREA; KOCHEN SILVIA; SOLÍS PATRICIA; LEON CANDELA; GIAGANTE BRENDA; KACZER LAURA; MOYANO MALEN; ODDO SILVIA; FORCATO CECILIA

Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba

Congreso; XXXIV Reunión Anual SAN 2019; 2019

New memories are reactivated during sleep reinforcing cortico-cortical connections favoring memory consolidation. There are contradictory results concerning the role of sleep in new word consolidation, some studies reveal a fast integration independent of sleep while others show sleep-dependent integration of new words. Patients suffering Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) often show deficits in consolidation of declarative memories. It has been shown that TLE patients have a temporal coupling desynchronization between hippocampal ripples and cortical slow oscillations, a mechanism implicated in off-line memory consolidation. Using a word learning task we evaluated the role of sleep in consolidation and integration in patients with refractory TLE. Participants performed a word learning task and afterwardsslept for 8h while a polysomnography was performed, or they remain awake for 8h. Memory retention was tested after that period. Our results showed that the Wake group had a better performance than the Sleep group. Furthermore, we observed positive correlations between time spent in Slow Wave Sleep (SWS), power density for slow waves (0.5-1 Hz), delta (1-4 Hz), theta waves (4-8 Hz) in S2 and SWS and memory performance. Thus, while TLE patients showed an impaired consolidation during sleep compared to the wake group, the more time spent in SWS sleep and the more power density of slow wave activity in No-REM sleep, the better the memory performance.