Abstract
Recent evidence indicates that humans can learn entirely new information during sleep. To elucidate the neural dynamics underlying sleep-learning, we investigated brain activity during auditory–olfactory discriminatory associative learning in human sleep. We found that learning-related delta and sigma neural changes are involved in early acquisition stages, when new associations are being formed. In contrast, learning-related theta activity emerged in later stages of the learning process, after tone–odor associations were already established. These findings suggest that learning new associations during sleep is signaled by a dynamic interplay between slow-waves, sigma, and theta activity.
Highlights
The possibility to learn during sleep has intrigued humanity for over a century
We found that learning-related delta and sigma activity are involved at early acquisition stages of the learning procedure, while learning-related theta activity emerges only after the discrimination is established, suggesting that timely modulation of slow-waves, sigma and theta rhythms during learning in sleep, may prompt the encoding and stabilization of new associative memories
We verified that the behavioral results observed in the current examined nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep dataset were similar to those reported before (The data were collected as part of a previous study published independently; Arzi et al 2012)
Summary
The possibility to learn during sleep has intrigued humanity for over a century. In his 1911 science fiction novel “Ralph 124C 41+”, Hugo Gernsback described the Hypnobioscope, a device that transmits words directly to the sleeping brain such that they would be fully remembered in the morning. The question of learning during sleep was revisited, and by applying simple forms of learning, such as associative and perceptual learning, it has been found that humans (Arzi et al 2012, 2014; Ruch et al 2014; Andrillon and Kouider 2016; Andrillon et al 2017; Züst et al 2019) and animals (De Lavilléon et al 2015) can learn entirely new information during sleep. We aimed to identify brain processes supporting discriminatory associative learning during sleep
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