scholarly journals Competitive dynamics underlie cognitive improvements during sleep

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (51) ◽  
pp. e2109339118
Author(s):  
Pin-Chun Chen ◽  
Hamid Niknazar ◽  
William A. Alaynick ◽  
Lauren N. Whitehurst ◽  
Sara C. Mednick

We provide evidence that human sleep is a competitive arena in which cognitive domains vie for limited resources. Using pharmacology and effective connectivity analysis, we demonstrate that long-term memory and working memory are served by distinct offline neural mechanisms that are mutually antagonistic. Specifically, we administered zolpidem to increase central sigma activity and demonstrated targeted suppression of autonomic vagal activity. With effective connectivity, we determined the central activity has greater causal influence over autonomic activity, and the magnitude of this influence during sleep produced a behavioral trade-off between offline long-term and working memory processing. These findings suggest a sleep switch mechanism that toggles between central sigma-dependent long-term memory and autonomic vagal-dependent working memory processing.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pin-Chun Chen ◽  
Hamid Niknazar ◽  
William A. Alaynick ◽  
Lauren N. Whitehurst ◽  
Sara C. Mednick

AbstractBoth working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM) utilize non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep for improvement. LTM systems consolidation is supported by hippocampal-cortical communication, whereas WM improvement is associated with the strengthening of prefrontal-autonomic networks. Prior studies have demonstrated that these two networks demonstrate mutual antagonism during sleep; but this trade-off has not been confirmed in human sleep and its functional significance is unknown. Here, we investigated the functional impact of central and autonomic activity on LTM and WM improvement. We pharmacologically enhanced central activity and observed targeted suppression of autonomic activity, and using effective connectivity, we showed greater causal influence of central over autonomic activity. Finally, we demonstrated that the central and autonomic antagonism was reflected in a behavioral trade-off between overnight LTM and WM processing. These results suggest that NREM sleep confers benefits to working and long-term memory by switching between autonomic and central processing.


2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 207-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronan Zimmermann ◽  
Ute Gschwandtner ◽  
Florian Hatz ◽  
Christian Schindler ◽  
Habib Bousleiman ◽  
...  

Background: Cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) are heterogeneous and can be classified into cognitive domains. Quantitative EEG is related to and predictive of cognitive status in PD. In this cross-sectional study, the relationship of cognitive domains and EEG slowing in PD patients without dementia is investigated. Methods: A total of 48 patients with idiopathic PD were neuropsychologically tested. Cognitive domain scores were calculated combining Z-scores of test variables. Slowing of EEG was measured with median EEG frequency. Linear regression was used for correlational analyses and to control for confounding factors. Results: EEG median frequency was significantly correlated to cognitive performance in most domains (episodic long-term memory, rho = 0.54; overall cognitive score, rho = 0.47; fluency, rho = 0.39; attention, rho = 0.37; executive function, rho = 0.34), but not to visuospatial functions and working memory. Conclusion: Global EEG slowing is a marker for overall cognitive impairment in PD and correlates with impairment in the domains attention, executive function, verbal fluency, and episodic long-term memory, but not with working memory and visuospatial functions. These disparate effects warrant further investigations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Potter

AbstractRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.


Author(s):  
Ian Neath ◽  
Jean Saint-Aubin ◽  
Tamra J. Bireta ◽  
Andrew J. Gabel ◽  
Chelsea G. Hudson ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan S. Rose ◽  
Joel Myerson ◽  
Henry L. Roediger ◽  
Sandra Hale

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Verschooren ◽  
Yoav Kessler ◽  
Tobias Egner

An influential view of working memory (WM) holds that its’ contents are controlled by a selective gating mechanism that allows for relevant perceptual information to enter WM when opened, but shields WM contents from interference when closed. In support of this idea, prior studies using the reference-back paradigm have established behavioral costs for opening and closing the gate between perception and WM. WM also frequently requires input from long-term memory (LTM), but it is currently unknown whether a similar gate controls the selection of LTM representations into WM, and how WM gating of perceptual vs. LTM sources of information relate to each other. To address these key theoretical questions, we devised a novel version of the reference-back paradigm, where participants switched between gating perceptual and LTM information into WM. We observed clear evidence for gate opening and closing costs in both cases. Moreover, the pattern of costs associated with gating and source-switching indicated that perceptual and LTM information is gated into WM via a single gate, and rely on a shared source-selection mechanism. These findings extend current models of WM gating to encompass LTM information, and outline a new functional WM architecture.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110105
Author(s):  
Spencer Talbot ◽  
Todor Gerdjikov ◽  
Carlo De Lillo

Assessing variations in cognitive function between humans and animals is vital for understanding the idiosyncrasies of human cognition and for refining animal models of human brain function and disease. We determined memory functions deployed by mice and humans to support foraging with a search task acting as a test battery. Mice searched for food from the top of poles within an open-arena. Poles were divided into groups based on visual cues and baited according to different schedules. White and black poles were baited in alternate trials. Striped poles were never baited. The requirement of the task was to find all baits in each trial. Mice’s foraging efficiency, defined as the number of poles visited before all baits were retrieved, improved with practice. Mice learnt to avoid visiting un-baited poles across trials (Long-term memory) and revisits to poles within each trial (Working memory). Humans tested with a virtual-reality version of the task outperformed mice in foraging efficiency, working memory and exploitation of the temporal pattern of rewards across trials. Moreover, humans, but not mice, reduced the number of possible movement sequences used to search the set of poles. For these measures interspecies differences were maintained throughout three weeks of testing. By contrast, long-term-memory for never-rewarded poles was similar in mice and humans after the first week of testing. These results indicate that human cognitive functions relying upon archaic brain structures may be adequately modelled in mice. Conversely, modelling in mice fluid skills likely to have developed specifically in primates, requires caution.


Author(s):  
Amberkar Vittal Rao Mohanbabu ◽  
Meena Kumari Kamal Kishore ◽  
Bangalore Revanna Chandrashekar ◽  
Hoskeri Dakappa Pradeepa ◽  
Rockson Christopher ◽  
...  

AbstractThe goal of this study was to evaluate the cerebroprotective and cognition-enhancing activities of the aqueousReference or working memory and long-term memory in rodents were tested by experimental paradigms like passive avoidance (PA) and T-maze (TM), respectively. TM and Morris water maze (MWM) were used to screen putative spatial or localization task and the navigation memory-enhancing activities ofThe higher dose (20 mg/kg) of plant extract exhibited significant (p<0.01) antiamnesic activity in the PA and TM models vs. the control. In the MWM test, at probe trial,These results partly substantiate the traditional use of


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