title: Sleep, memory, and plasticity.
abstract: Although the functions of sleep remain largely unknown, one of the most exciting hypotheses is that sleep contributes importantly to processes of memory and brain plasticity. Over the past decade, a large body of work, spanning most of the neurosciences, has provided a substantive body of evidence supporting this role of sleep in what is becoming known as sleep-dependent memory processing. We review these findings, focusing specifically on the role of sleep in (a) memory encoding, (b) memory consolidation, (c) brain plasticity, and (d) memory reconsolidation; we finish with a summary of the field and its potential future directions.
authors.affiliation: Sleep and Neuroimaging, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. mwalker@hms.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Matthew P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stickgold
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*