Abstract
Sleep before learning benefits memory encoding through unknown mechanisms. We found that even a mild sleep disruption that suppressed slow-wave activity and induced shallow sleep, but did not reduce total sleep time, was sufficient to affect subsequent successful encoding-related hippocampal activation and memory performance in healthy human subjects. Implicit learning was not affected. Our results suggest that the hippocampus is particularly sensitive to shallow, but intact, sleep.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Yoo, S.S., Hu, P.T., Gujar, N., Jolesz, F.A. & Walker, M.P. Nat. Neurosci. 10, 385–392 (2007).
Van Cauter, E., Leproult, R. & Plat, L. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 284, 861–868 (2000).
Gron, G. et al. Neurobiol. Aging 24, 453–462 (2003).
Drewes, A.M. et al. J. Musculoskelet. Pain 8, 49–67 (2000).
Dolan, R.J. & Fletcher, P.C. Nature 388, 582–585 (1997).
Stern, C.E. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 8660–8665 (1996).
Ungerleider, L.G. & Haxby, J.V. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 4, 157–165 (1994).
McDermott, C.M. et al. J. Neurosci. 23, 9687–9695 (2003).
Marshall, L., Helgadottir, H., Molle, M. & Born, J. Nature 444, 610–613 (2006).
Buzsáki, G. Rhythms of the Brain (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006).
Lubenov, E.V. & Siapas, A.G. Neuron 58, 118–131 (2008).
Collins, D.R., Pelletier, J.G. & Pare, D. J. Neurophysiol. 85, 1661–1672 (2001).
Isomura, Y. et al. Neuron 52, 871–882 (2006).
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank K. Plugge, I. Beckmann and R. Strijers for assistance in subject screening. This study was funded by the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research, the Hague, VIDI Innovation Grants 016.025.041 and 016.095.359, Integrated Cognition Project Grant 051-04-010, and by Internationale Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek grant 05511. Financial support for imaging costs was supplied by the Graduate School Neurosciences Amsterdam.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Y.D.v.d.W. carried out the data acquisitions, the fMRI and EEG analyses, and wrote the manuscript. E.A. performed the data acquisitions and co-wrote the manuscript. M.M.S. and E.J.S.-A. carried out the fMRI analyses. J.C.V. performed the sleep scoring. W.d.R. devised the sleep manipulation tool. E.J.W.v.S. supervised the project, performed the statistical analyses of the EEG data and co-wrote the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Supplementary Text and Figures
Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 231 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Van Der Werf, Y., Altena, E., Schoonheim, M. et al. Sleep benefits subsequent hippocampal functioning. Nat Neurosci 12, 122–123 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2253
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2253
