title: Cognitive replay of visuomotor learning at sleep onset: temporal dynamics and relationship to task performance.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Studies of neural activity in animals and humans suggest that experiences are "replayed" in cortical and hippocampal networks during NREM sleep. Here, we examine whether memory reactivation in sleeping humans might also be evident within reports of concomitant subjective experience (i.e., dreaming).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were trained on an engaging visuomotor learning task across a period of one or more days, and sleep onset mentation was collected at variable intervals using the "Nightcap" home-monitoring device. Verbal reports of sleep onset mentation were obtained either at the beginning of the night, or following 2 h of initial sleep.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected in participants' home environments, via the Nightcap monitoring system, and at The Center for Sleep and Cognition, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston MA.
  
  
  METHODS
  43 healthy, medication-free college students (16 males, age 18-25 years).
  
  
  METHODS
  N/A.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The learning task exerted a powerful, direct effect on verbal reports of mentation during light NREM sleep (stages 1 and 2). On post-training nights, a full 30% of all verbal reports were related to the task. The nature of this cognitive "replay" effect was altered with increasing durations of sleep, becoming more abstracted from the original experience as time into sleep increased.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These observations are interpreted in light of memory consolidation theory, and demonstrate that introspective reports can provide a valuable window on cognitive processing in the sleeping brain.
authors.affiliation: The Center for Sleep and Cognition, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, Boston, MA 02215, USA. EWamsley@bidmc.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Erin J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Wamsley
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Djonlagic
authors.forename: Laura Babkes
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Reaven
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stickgold
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000523:psychology; D004325:Dreams; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D017286:Polysomnography; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012894:Sleep Stages; D018910:Video Games; D055815:Young Adult