Post-trial sleep sequences including transition sleep are involved in avoidance learning of adult rats

Abstract

High resolution computerized EEG analyses, and behavioral observations were used to identify slow wave sleep (SS), paradoxical sleep (PS) and transition sleep (TS) in adult male Wistar rats exposed to a session of two-way active avoidance training. Of the four sleep sequences that could be identified, two included TS (SS→TS→W and SS→TS→PS), while the other two did not (SS→W and SS→PS). Comparison of post-trial sleep variables between fast learning rats (FL, reaching criterion in the training session), slow learning rats (SL, reaching criterion in the retention session the following day), and non learning rats (NL, failing to reach criterion) indicated that the total amounts of SS, TS and PS of the SS→TS→PS sequence was markedly higher in FL rats than in SL rats. In addition, in comparison with the corresponding baseline period, the average duration and total amount of SS and TS episodes of the SS→TS→PS sequence increased in FL rats, while the number of SS→TS→W sequences decreased. On the other hand, the average duration of SS episodes increased in the SS→TS→W and SS→W sequences of SL rats, and in the SS→W and SS→TS→PS sequences of NL rats. Correlative analyses between number of avoidances and post-trial sleep variables demonstrated that avoidances were directly correlated with the duration of SS episodes of the SS→TS→PS sequence and with the duration of TS episodes of the SS→TS→W sequence, but inversely correlated with the number and amount of SS episodes of the SS→W sequence and with the duration and amount of SS episodes of the SS→PS sequence. On the whole, the data supported the view that TS-containing sleep sequences are involved in long-term storage of novel adaptive behavior, while sleep sequences lacking TS are involved in the maintenance of innate behavioral responses.