Involvement of spindles in memory consolidation is slow wave sleep-specific

  1. Lucia M. Talamini
  1. 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.
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