scholarly journals Procedural memory consolidation is associated with heart rate variability and sleep spindles

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank J. van Schalkwijk ◽  
Theresa Hauser ◽  
Kerstin Hoedlmoser ◽  
Mohamed S. Ameen ◽  
Frank H. Wilhelm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Sleep Spindles

scholarly journals Contribution of REM sleep and N2 sleep spindles to procedural memory consolidation in Vipassana meditators and non-meditating controls.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizaveta Solomonova ◽  
Simon Dubé ◽  
Cloé Blanchette-Carrière ◽  
Arnaud Samson-Richer ◽  
Michelle Carr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Nrem Sleep ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Sleep Stages ◽  
Sleep Spindles ◽  
Meditation Practice ◽  
Rapid Eye Movement ◽  
Vipassana Meditation

Study objectives: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and sleep spindles are all implicated in the consolidation of procedural memories. The relative contributions of sleep stages and sleep spindles was previously shown to depend on individual differences in task processing. Experience with Vipassana meditation is one such individual difference that has not been investigated in relation to sleep. Vipassana meditation is a form of mental training that enhances proprioceptive and somatic awareness and alters attentional style. The goal was thus to examine a potential moderating role for Vipassana meditation experience on sleep-dependent procedural memory consolidation.Methods: Groups of Vipassana meditation practitioners (N=20) and matched meditation-naïve controls (N=20) slept for a single daytime nap in the laboratory. Before and after the nap they completed a procedural task on the Wii Fit balance platform.Results: Meditators performed slightly better on the task before the nap, but the two groups improved similarly after sleep. The groups showed different patterns of sleep-dependent procedural memory consolidation: in meditators task learning was negatively correlated with density of fast and positively correlated with density of slow occipital spindles, while in controls task improvement was associated with increases in REM sleep. Meditation practitioners had a lower density of sleep spindles, especially in occipital regions.Conclusions: Results suggest that neuroplastic changes associated with sustained meditation practice may alter overall sleep architecture and reorganize sleep-dependent patterns of memory consolidation. The lower density of spindles in meditators may mean that meditation practice compensates for some of the memory functions of sleep.

scholarly journals 0113 Evaluating Closed-Loop Auditory Stimulation During Sleep as an Intervention to Improve Memory Consolidation Deficits in Schizophrenia

SLEEP ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A45-A45
Author(s):  
B Baxter ◽  
K Kwok ◽  
C Talbot ◽  
L Zhu ◽  
D Mylonas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Closed Loop ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Auditory Stimulation ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Sleep Spindles ◽  
Motor Sequence

Abstract Introduction Converging evidence supports the hypothesis that reduced sleep spindles and spindle-slow oscillation (SO) coordination contribute to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Closed-loop auditory stimulation in healthy adults increases sleep spindles and improves declarative memory consolidation. Here we investigated whether closed-loop auditory stimulation also improves sleep-dependent procedural memory consolidation as a first step towards an intervention in schizophrenia. Methods Thirteen healthy adults participated in two nap sessions (stimulation or detection only) with polysomnography in a counterbalanced order. Participants were trained on the finger tapping Motor Sequence Task (MST), which measures sleep-dependent motor procedural memory consolidation, prior to napping and were tested after awakening. We detected the negative peak of SOs during non-REM sleep and, in the stimulation condition, delivered 50ms of pink noise during the SO up-state. Results Auditory stimulation increased SOs and spindles during the SO up-state in a frontocentral cluster of electrodes 800-1200ms after stimulation compared to detection only (p<0.05). Stimulation also showed promise for improving memory consolidation (33% increase in MST overnap improvement from detection-only) but this did not reach significance in this small sample and data collection is ongoing. Conclusion Auditory stimulation evoked coordinated spindle-SO events that mediate memory consolidation, but more subjects are needed to evaluate whether it also improves memory. If it does, we will test the effects of stimulation on sleep-dependent memory deficits in patients with schizophrenia. Closed-loop auditory stimulation shows promise as a safe, scalable intervention for cognitive deficits that can be implemented at home with commercially available devices. Support R01 MH67720 (DSM & RS), NIH-NHLBI 5T32HL007901-17 (BB), K24MH099421 (DSM), and Simons Foundation (DSM).

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