Sleep-Stage Sequence and Memory

尽管大多数动物都睡觉，但睡眠的功能仍不清楚。在人类和其他哺乳动物中，睡眠的关键功能之一可能是提高学习能力和记忆所学知识的能力。睡眠不足会导致学习和记忆缺陷，这一事实表明了这一点。人类的睡眠由大约90分钟的睡眠周期组成。在这些周期中，睡眠在不同类型的睡眠或睡眠阶段之间交替，如快速眼动睡眠和非快速眼动睡眠。这些阶段在每个周期中以特定的顺序出现，人们认为这些顺序对记忆很重要。在这项研究中，我们将研究一个实验室动物模型（大鼠），我们可以在不引起睡眠剥夺的情况下实验性地破坏正常的睡眠阶段顺序。我们预测，这种中断将导致记忆缺陷，为正常睡眠阶段序列在学习过程中的作用提供证据。我们还将研究这种对学习产生影响的分子机制。我们的研究将有助于理解正常睡眠的挑战是如何影响学习的，这是我们现代社会的一个共同特征，并可能有助于制定策略来改善经常受到睡眠中断影响的人们的学习表现。该项目还将包括对本科生和研究生的研究方法和技术培训。

Despite the fact that most animals sleep, it is still unclear what function sleep serves. In humans and other mammals, one of the key functions of sleep is likely to improve learning and the ability to retain what was learned. This is indicated by the fact that sleep deprivation leads to learning and memory deficits. In humans, sleep is made up of sleep cycles that last approximately 90 minutes. Within these cycles, sleep alternates between different types of sleep or sleep stages, such as rapid-eye-movement sleep (REMS) and non-REMS. These stages are present in a specific sequence within each cycle and it is believed that these sequences are important for memory. For this research, we will study a laboratory animal model (the rat) in which we can experimentally disrupt the normal sequence of sleep stages without inducing sleep deprivaation. We predict that this disruption will result in deficits in memory, providing evidence for the role of a normal sequence of sleep stages in learning processes. We will also study the molecular mechanisms by which this effect on learning may take place. Our studies will help understand how challenges to normal sleep, that are a common feature of our modern society, affect learning and may help develop strategies to improve learning performance in people that are commonly exposed to sleep disruptions. This project will also include the training of undergraduate and graduate students in research methods and techniques.