The role and mechanisms of sleep on memory consolidation

Abstract

In addition to its physiological functions, sleep also has a consolidating effect on memory, and current research has found sleep could promote the consolidation of declarative, procedural, and emotional memory. Possible mechanisms of sleep-enhanced memory include the the systemic consolidation theory, dual-process theory, the synaptic homeostasis theory, and the sequence hypothesis. In the future, more research need to examine the neural mechanisms of sleep-enhanced memory consolidation, and the use of simultaneous EEG-MRI will be a meaningful attempt to help us better understand the specific neural processes of sleep-enhanced memory consolidation.