State of the art on targeted memory reactivation: Sleep your way to enhanced cognition.
Targeted memory reactivation is a fairly simple technique that has the potential to influence the course of memory formation through application of cues during sleep. Studies have shown that cueing memory during sleep can lead to either an enhanced or decreased representation of the information encoded in the targeted networks, depending on experimental variations. The effects have been associated with sleep parameters and accompanied by activation of memory related brain areas. The findings suggest a causal role of neuronal replay in memory consolidation and provide evidence for the active system consolidation hypothesis. However, the observed inconsistencies across studies suggest that further research is warranted regarding the underlying neural mechanisms and optimal conditions for the application of targeted memory reactivation. The goal of the present review is to integrate the currently available experimental data and to provide an overview of this technique's limitations and pitfalls, as well as its potential applications in everyday use and clinical treatment. Exploring the open questions herein identified should lead to insight into safer and more effective ways of adjusting memory representations to better suit individual needs.
Department of Clinical Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: daphne.schouten@live.nl.
Daphne I
DI
Schouten
Physiology Department, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. Electronic address: sofia@ufpr.br.
Sofia I R
SI
Pereira
Department of Clinical Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Mattie
M
Tops
Physiology Department, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Fernando M
FM
Louzada
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D000069077:Memory Consolidation / Q000502:physiology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012895:Sleep, REM
Active system consolidation hypothesis; Cueing; Electroencephalography; Memory consolidation; Neuronal replay; Rapid eye movement sleep; Sleep; Slow wave sleep; Synaptic homeostasis hypothesis; Targeted memory reactivation