Abstract
Study Objectives: To investigate how the effects of targeted memory reactivation (TMR) are influenced by memory accuracy prior to sleep and the presence or absence of direct cue-memory associations. Methods: 30 participants associated each of 50 pictures with an unrelated word and then with a screen location in two separate tasks. During picturelocation training, each picture was also presented with a semantically related sound. The sounds were therefore directly associated with the picture locations but indirectly associated with the words. During a subsequent nap, half of the sounds were replayed in slow wave sleep (SWS). The effect of TMR on memory for the picture locations (direct cue-memory associations) and picture-word pairs (indirect cue-memory associations) was then examined. Results: TMR reduced overall memory decay for recall of picture locations. Further analyses revealed a benefit of TMR for picture locations recalled with a low degree of accuracy prior to sleep, but not those recalled with a high degree of accuracy. The benefit of TMR for low accuracy memories was predicted by time spent in SWS. There was no benefit of TMR for memory of the picture-word pairs, irrespective of memory accuracy prior to sleep. Conclusions: TMR provides the greatest benefit to memories recalled with a low degree of accuracy prior to sleep. The memory benefits of TMR may also be contingent on direct cue-memory associations.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1139-1150 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Sleep |
Volume | 39 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 1 2016 |
Funding
This was not an industry-supported study. The research was performed at the University of York, UK and was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council grant (ES/I038586/1) awarded to Prof. Gaskell. The authors have indicated no financial conflicts of interest.
Keywords
- Consolidation
- Memory
- Reactivation
- Slow wave sleep
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine