Involvement of spindles in memory consolidation is slow wave sleep-specific
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Weesperplein 4, 1018 XA Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract
Both sleep spindles and slow oscillations have been implicated in sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Whereas spindles occur during both light and deep sleep, slow oscillations are restricted to deep sleep, raising the possibility of greater consolidation-related spindle involvement during deep sleep. We assessed declarative memory retention over an interval containing a nap and determined spindle density for light and deep sleep separately. In deep sleep, spindle density was considerably higher and showed a strong and robust positive correlation with retention. This relation was absent for light sleep, suggesting that the potentiating effects of spindles are tied to their co-occurrence with slow oscillations.
Footnotes
-
↵1 Corresponding author.
E-mail r.cox{at}uva.nl.
- Received March 9, 2012.
- Accepted April 27, 2012.
- © 2012 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press