Studies of Learning during Sleep: Problems, Progress, and Perspectives

Abstract

Sleep has been shown to play an important role in memory consolidation. The direction of studies of learning during sleep is based on the hypothesis that assimilation of new information can occur during the state of sleep. We present here a review of articles addressing the question of the formation of new memory traces during sleep with retention to waking, as well as reports of work seeking to identify the mechanisms of this learning. Associative conditioned reflex, perceptual, and other forms of learning are demonstrated, the main type being implicit learning.