Learning, Creative Problem-Solving, REM Sleep, and Dreaming

学习、创造性解决问题、快速眼动睡眠和做梦

• 批准号: 1921678
• 负责人: Ken Paller
• 金额: $ 59.5万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2024-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1921678&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Learning; Creative; Problem; Solving; REM

This project explores several aspects of learning and sleep. Memories we have acquired during the day are reactivated during sleep, causing changes in memory storage in brain networks. Dreams in particular may contribute to language learning and problem solving, but one problem with the scientific study of dreaming is that we gain knowledge of a dream only after an individual has awoken. In the waking state, dreams may be recalled in a fragmentary or distorted way, or barely remembered at all. This research will overcome those limitations by allowing dreamers to communicate about their dream experiences while they are having the dreams. For example, using eye-movement and muscle-twitch signals, dreamers can indicate that they are aware of dreaming, and an experimenter can communicate with a dreamer with softly spoken words or other sounds. This strategy will open up new avenues for understanding more about the importance of sleep, with many important implications for society.The project uses a set of innovative methods to advance knowledge of the various cognitive benefits of sleep. Prior studies showed that spatial memory could be changed during sleep through the method of Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR). This approach of strategically presenting soft sounds during sleep will be modified to investigate whether vocabulary learning and problem solving can be improved in association with REM sleep or in association with a dream. To enable this novel perspective on dreaming, people will be interviewed from within a dream. Experimenters will issue softly spoken questions, and volunteers will communicate back with a code based on specific eye movements and muscle twitches, readily measured electrophysiologically, all while REM sleep is maintained. People typically experience a dream with a high degree of acceptance and a lack of critical evaluation - they fail to realize that the experience is merely a dream. In a lucid dream, one gains the elusive insight of being in a dream. However, lucid dreams can seldom be summoned at will, and on the rare occasions when people succeed in having a lucid dream in a lab, they often forget pre-assigned goals. These challenges will be overcome by: (a) pre-sleep training to strategically link specific sound cues with action plans; (b) monitoring sleep physiology to coordinate stimulation; and (c) presenting sounds to remind dreamers to evaluate their experience to determine if they are dreaming, and to then engage in specific activities such as rehearsing recently learned foreign words or attempting to reach a solution to a cognitive puzzle. Increasing the frequency of lucid dreams through these methods will make it possible to examine cognition during the course of interactive dreaming. Results from this project will expand understanding of cognitive capabilities during sleep, and will provide new information on the extent to which sleep cognition can assist with language learning, problem solving, and other tasks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个项目探讨了学习和睡眠的几个方面。我们在白天获得的记忆在睡眠中被重新激活，导致大脑网络中记忆存储的变化。特别是梦可能有助于语言学习和解决问题，但对梦的科学研究的一个问题是，我们只有在一个人醒来后才能获得关于梦的知识。在清醒状态下，梦可能会以支离破碎或扭曲的方式回忆起来，或者几乎不记得。这项研究将通过允许做梦者在做梦时交流他们的梦境体验来克服这些限制。例如，使用眼球运动和肌肉抽搐信号，做梦者可以表明他们意识到做梦，实验者可以用轻声说话或其他声音与做梦者交流。这一策略将为更多地了解睡眠的重要性开辟新的途径，对社会有许多重要的影响。该项目使用一套创新方法来推进睡眠的各种认知益处的知识。先前的研究表明，空间记忆可以通过目标记忆再激活（TMR）的方法在睡眠中改变。这种在睡眠期间策略性地呈现柔和声音的方法将被修改，以调查是否可以通过与REM睡眠或与梦相关联来改善词汇学习和问题解决。为了使这种新的视角对梦，人们将在梦中接受采访。实验者会轻声地提出问题，志愿者则会根据特定的眼球运动和肌肉抽搐（容易被电生理学测量），用一种代码进行交流，而所有这些都是在快速眼动睡眠期间进行的。人们通常会在高度接受和缺乏批判性评价的情况下体验一个梦-他们没有意识到这个体验仅仅是一个梦。在一个清醒的梦中，一个人获得了在梦中的难以捉摸的洞察力。然而，清醒梦很少能被随意召唤，而且在实验室里，人们偶尔能成功地做一个清醒梦，他们经常会忘记预先设定的目标。这些挑战将通过以下方式来克服：（a）睡前训练，将特定的声音线索与行动计划战略性地联系起来;（B）监测睡眠生理学，以协调刺激;（c）呈现声音，提醒做梦者评估他们的经历，以确定他们是否在做梦，然后从事特定的活动，如排练最近学习的外语单词或尝试解决认知难题。通过这些方法增加清醒梦的频率，将使我们有可能在交互式做梦的过程中检查认知。该项目的结果将扩大对睡眠期间认知能力的理解，并将提供有关睡眠认知在多大程度上有助于语言学习、解决问题和其他任务的新信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

项目成果

Sleep disruption by memory cues selectively weakens reactivated memories

记忆线索干扰睡眠会选择性地削弱重新激活的记忆

• DOI: 10.1101/lm.053615.122
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Learning & Memory
• 影响因子: 2
• 作者: Whitmore, Nathan W.;Paller, Ken A.
• 通讯作者: Paller, Ken A.

Examining sleep’s role in memory generalization and specificity through the lens of targeted memory reactivation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.01.007
• 发表时间: 2020-06
• 期刊: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
• 影响因子: 5
• 作者: S. Witkowski;Eitan Schechtman;K. Paller

Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026
• 发表时间: 2021-04-12
• 期刊: Current biology : CB
• 作者: Konkoly KR;Appel K;Chabani E;Mangiaruga A;Gott J;Mallett R;Caughran B;Witkowski S;Whitmore NW;Mazurek CY;Berent JB;Weber FD;Türker B;Leu-Semenescu S;Maranci JB;Pipa G;Arnulf I;Oudiette D;Dresler M;Paller KA
• 通讯作者: Paller KA

Sleep Learning Gets Real

睡眠学习变得真实

• DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican1118-26
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Scientific American
• 影响因子: 3
• 作者: Paller, Ken A.;Oudiette, Delphine
• 通讯作者: Oudiette, Delphine

Does memory reactivation during sleep support generalization at the cost of memory specifics?

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107442
• 发表时间: 2021-07
• 期刊: Neurobiology of learning and memory
• 影响因子: 2.7
• 作者: Witkowski S;Noh S;Lee V;Grimaldi D;Preston AR;Paller KA
• 通讯作者: Paller KA