From as far back as I could remember, one of the most
important tenets for a healthy maintained body was most importantly sleep. My
father would often say, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man heathy,
wealthy, and wise.” Going to school and constantly finding myself in mentally
stimulating environments, sleep has been crucial. As studies about sleep have
progressed over the years, there has been an undoubted link found between sleep
and the consolidation of memory. Speaking on the mechanisms of sleep, Dr.
Vargas came to the Loyola University Chicago’s Neuroscience Seminar to speak of
the important influences about information presented during sleep and how it
can relate to the subsequent retrieval of that information upon waking.
However, beyond just getting the
appropriate amount of sleep to best serve memory and all its capability, that
“sound induced memory processing during sleep had affected the degree of recall
improvement or decline” (Vargas et al.,2009). Interestingly enough, participants of this study by
Dr. Vargas had no clue that sounds were being presented during sleep. It was
proposed from experimentation that “sound cues presented during sleep prompted
preferential processing of corresponding object-location associations” (Vargas et al.,2009). With
the hippocampus playing a major role in this retrieval, there was an
implication in it playing a role in sleep-mediated consolidation.
This idea that information is
processed and subject to assisting in the learning process paralleled to an
article that I had come across in the New York Times. The article, Learning Doesn’t Stop When You’re Asleep, speaks
of an experiment where participants were subject to different odors associated
with different tones while asleep. Bad smells were associated with shallower
breathing, while more pleasant smells were equated with longer, deeper
breathes. Surprisingly, upon waking these breathing patterns remained true when
tones were played, even though participants did not recall hearing anything
during the time the slept and smelled. In a true parallel with the study
conducted by Dr. Vargas, it was clearly showed through any means of
experimentation that associations during times of sleep may be activated as a
normal part of memory consolidation. With auditory stimulation, it is possible
we can target reactivation in certain parts of memory and strengthen them, even
when the sleeper is completely unaware of any phenomena. Though it has been an
interesting concept that we have often seen in movies or cartoons, there is
truth to the fact that we can associate and learn in our sleep, which is clear
from the two experiments I looked out. With further experimentation, we can
hope to grasp what else we are capable of in our sleep.
Picture Sources:
Article Source:
Speaker:
Rudoy, John D., Joel L. Voss, Carmen E. Westerberg, and Ken
A. Paller. "Strengthening Individual Memories by Reactivating Them During
Sleep." LUC Box. American Association for the Advancement of
Science, 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 30 Apr.
2017.<https://luc.app.box.com/v/neuroscienceseminar/1/15900245264/152271489593/1>.
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