title: Sleep states and learning: a review of the animal literature.
abstract: Animal studies are examined in relation to the sleep-learning hypothesis. It is concluded that the data best support the idea of special periods of paradoxical sleep (PS) within the 24 hour period which are specifically involved with the learning process. The onset and duration of these PS "windows" varies with strain of animal, type of task and number of training trials per session. Alternative explanations and theories are considered.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D002415:Cats; D004597:Electroshock; D004777:Environment; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000502:physiology; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity; D013997:Time Factors