Abstract
In this paper we argue that autobiographical memory (AM) activity across sleep and wake can provide insight into the nature of dreaming, and vice versa. Activated memories within the sleeping brain reflect one’s personal life history (autobiography). They can appear in largely fragmentary forms and differ from conventional manifestations of episodic memory. Autobiographical memories in dreams can be sampled from non-REM as well as REM periods, which contain fewer episodic references and become more bizarre across the night. Salient fragmented memory features are activated in sleep and re-bound with fragments not necessarily emerging from the same memory, thus de-contextualizing those memories and manifesting as experiences that differ from waking conceptions. The constructive nature of autobiographical recall further encourages synthesis of these hyper-associated images into an episode via recalling and reporting dreams. We use a model of AM to account for the activation of memories in dreams as a reflection of sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes. We focus in particular on the hyperassociative nature of AM during sleep.
Highlights
The Context of Autobiographical MemoryWhilst memories for very specific instances are referred to as “episodic” (e.g., Tulving, 1983, 2002), memory and information for and about our own experiences more generally falls under the umbrella term of “autobiographical memory” (AM; Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000; Conway, 2001, 2005, 2009; Conway and Loveday, 2015)
Reviewed by: Alexandre Heeren, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium Timothy D
Current conceptualizations of episodic memory, which break from earlier theories (e.g., Tulving, 1983), suggest that episodic memories are detailed summary accounts of short time-period experiences, which are forgotten within 24 h unless they are consolidated during sleep and subsequently become linked to autobiographical memory (AM) (Conway, 2009)
Summary
Whilst memories for very specific instances are referred to as “episodic” (e.g., Tulving, 1983, 2002), memory and information for and about our own experiences more generally falls under the umbrella term of “autobiographical memory” (AM; Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000; Conway, 2001, 2005, 2009; Conway and Loveday, 2015). 2)— both waking AM and sleep mentation are organized in this manner Such narratives are not composed of precise replicas of specific (episodic) experiences from the life-course. We explore the processes of sleep-dependent memory consolidation with a particular emphasis on the enhancement, stabilization, and integration of AMs. In this paper we propose a model in which AM experiences are broken down into constituent fragments, reactivated “offline” during sleep, and re-combined via hyperassociativity (e.g., Llewellyn, 2013) into a novel experience. We emphasize we constructive nature of AM retrieval, recognizing (i) that memories change considerably over time, and (ii) that sleep can enhance AM by breaking down and re-combining memory elements, re-activating salient features and consolidating them via repeated activation As such sleep-dependent AM consolidation functions to de-contextualize information, rendering salient features more retrievable following a period of sleep. We examine the relevance of such hyperassociativity to processes of sleep-dependent memory consolidation, and propose a model of AM consolidation, which dreams can usefully reflect
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