Remembering faces and names can be improved during sleep
Research finds memory reactivation -- combined with quality sleep -- is
key

Date:
January 12, 2022
Source:
Northwestern University
Summary:
New research has documented the effect reactivating memory during
sleep has on face-name learning. The researchers found that people's
name recall improved significantly when memories of newly learned
face-name associations were reactivated while they were napping. Key
to this improvement was uninterrupted deep sleep.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
For those who rarely forget a face, but struggle with names, the remedy
for boosting learning may as near as your pillow.


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New research by Northwestern University is the first to document the
effect reactivating memory during sleep has on face-name learning.

The researchers found that people's name recall improved significantly
when memories of newly learned face-name associations were reactivated
while they were napping. Key to this improvement was uninterrupted
deep sleep.

"It's a new and exciting finding about sleep, because it tells us that
the way information is reactivated during sleep to improve memory storage
is linked with high-quality sleep," said lead author Nathan Whitmore,
a Ph.D. candidate in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Northwestern.

The paper, "Targeted memory reactivation of face-name learning depends
on ample and undisturbed slow-wave sleep," will publish Jan. 12 in the
Nature partner journal NPJ: Science of Learning.

The paper's senior author is Ken Paller, professor of psychology and
director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at Weinberg College of
Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. The paper was also co-authored by
Adrianna Bassard, Ph.D.

candidate in psychology at Northwestern.



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The research team found that for study participants with EEG measures
(a recording of electrical activity of the brain picked up by electrodes
on the scalp) that indicated disrupted sleep, the memory reactivation
didn't help and may even be detrimental. But in those with uninterrupted
sleep during the specific times of sound presentations, the reactivation
led to a relative improvement averaging just over 1.5 more names recalled.

The study was conducted on 24 participants, aged 18-31 years old, who were asked to memorize the faces and names of 40 pupils from a hypothetical
Latin American history class and another 40 from a Japanese history
class. When each face was shown again, they were asked to produce the
name that went with it.

After the learning exercise, participants took a nap while the researchers carefully monitored brain activity using EEG measurements. When
participants reached the N3 "deep sleep" state, some of the names were
softly played on a speaker with music that was associated with one of
the classes.

When participants woke up, they were retested on recognizing the faces
and recalling the name that went with each face.

The researchers say the finding on the relationship between sleep
disruption and memory accuracy is noteworthy for several reasons.

"We already know that some sleep disorders like apnea can impair memory,"
said Whitmore. "Our research suggests a potential explanation for this
-- frequent sleep interruptions at night might be degrading memory."
The lab is in the midst of a follow-up study to reactivate memories and deliberately disrupt sleep in order to learn more about the relevant
brain mechanisms.

"This new line of research will let us address many interesting
questions - - like whether sleep disruption is always harmful
or whether it could be used to weaken unwanted memories," said
Paller, who also holds the James Padilla Chair in Arts & Sciences at Northwestern. "At any rate, we are increasingly finding good reasons
to value high-quality sleep." special promotion Get a free digital
"Metabolism Myths" issue of New Scientist and discover the 7 things
we always get wrong about diet and exercise. Claim_yours_now_>>> landing.newscientist.com/what-is-new-scientist-sd/ ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Northwestern_University. Original
written by Stephanie Kulke. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* The_three_main_stages_of_the_experiment ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Nathan W. Whitmore, Adrianna M. Bassard, Ken A. Paller. Targeted
memory
reactivation of face-name learning depends on ample and undisturbed
slow- wave sleep. npj Science of Learning, 2022; 7 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41539-021- 00119-2 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220112094000.htm
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