RUI: Mechanisms of Memory Consolidation in Offline Wakefulness

为什么我们记得一些事情，却忘记了另一些？新的记忆是脆弱的，必须加强和重组才能持久。众所周知，记忆在一天结束时的睡眠中得到加强。然而，这种记忆强化过程的早期阶段，即所谓的“巩固”，可能发生得非常快，在我们日常生活中的几秒钟内，当我们放松和休息时。这个项目精确地研究了这些清醒的区域外时期是如何提高记忆力的。当我们在学习后睡觉时，新的记忆在大脑中被反复激活，随着时间的推移，记忆痕迹逐渐加强。该项目的研究测试了记忆重新激活和强化的过程是否可以解释短暂的区域关闭期如何能够改善清醒时的记忆。通过使用EEG（脑电图），一种非侵入性脑成像技术，结合瞳孔大小，思想和行为的测量，可以测量这一过程。该项目有两个主要目标：首先，该项目调查在长达数秒的清醒休息期间，记忆是否会被重新激活和加强，就像它们在睡眠中被重新激活和巩固一样。其次，该项目的研究探讨了清醒休息期间的记忆巩固如何与睡眠协同作用，以改善记忆。该项目旨在测试工作假设，即休息和睡眠是按顺序进行的，需要睡眠来完全巩固和加强在清醒期间发生的初始记忆提升。这项研究希望加深我们对记忆的理解和增强记忆的方法。除了其科学目标，该项目还通过为高中生和本科生（包括代表性不足的少数群体成员）提供高影响力的研究培训来加强科学和STEM培训。该项目由认知神经科学计划和刺激竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Why do we remember some things, but forget others? New memories are fragile, and have to be strengthened and reorganized in order to last. It is known that memories are strengthened at the end of the day during sleep. However, the early stages of this process of memory strengthening, called “consolidation”, might happen very quickly, during seconds-long periods when we zone out, relax and rest during our daily lives. This project investigates precisely how these waking zone-out periods are able to improve memory. When we sleep after learning, new memories are repeatedly reactivated in the brain, incrementally strengthening memory traces over time. The research in this project tests whether this same process of memory reactivation and strengthening explains how short zone-out periods are able to improve memory during wakefulness. It is possible to measure this process by using EEG (electroencephalography), a non-invasive brain imaging technique, combined with measures of pupil size, thought and behavior. The project has two main goals: first, the project investigates whether memories are reactivated and strengthened during seconds-long periods of waking rest, in a similar way in which they are reactivated and consolidated during sleep. Second, the research in this project explores how memory consolidation during waking rest works together synergistically with sleep to improve memory. This project aims to test the working hypothesis that rest and sleep act in sequence, with sleep being required to fully consolidate and strengthen an initial memory boost that happens during wakefulness. This research hopes to deepen our understanding of memory and ways to enhance it. Beyond its scientific goals, this project also strengthens science and STEM training by providing high-impact research training for high school students and undergraduates, including members of underrepresented minority groups. This project is jointly funded by the Cognitive Neuroscience Program, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.