CRCNS Research Proposal: US-German Collaboration: Influencing Brain Rhythms for Boosting Memory Consolidation

本研究旨在了解睡眠的神经机制，目的是最佳地应用外部刺激技术来提高深度睡眠的效果。在工业社会中，睡眠水平处于历史最低水平，越来越多的人患有睡眠不良。深度睡眠构成了夜晚的主要部分，许多研究表明，有效和健康的深度睡眠不仅对认知表现和学习很重要，而且对增强免疫系统，代谢系统的健康功能也很重要，甚至对患有注意力缺陷多动综合征（ADHS）的儿童也至关重要。刺激技术的前景是，它们可以以非侵入性方式应用，具有潜在的广泛应用范围和最小的副作用，不仅在临床环境中，甚至在家中，并且成本低。在睡眠期间，大脑不是处于休息状态，而是处于“离线”状态，在此状态下，它会加强和稳定新编码的信息，以在系统整合过程中长期保持这些信息。越来越多的证据表明，在深度睡眠期间，主要的脑电节律的相互作用对于将信息转移到长期记忆中是必要的。本研究项目的最终目标是：（a）了解在睡眠期间通过外部刺激（声学和电学）促进这些内源性脑节律的神经过程，以及（B）研究这些干预措施，以优化睡眠节律的强化和协调，从而改善记忆和学习。该方法包括在啮齿动物中结合听觉刺激和光遗传学实验，在人类中结合听觉刺激和经颅直流电刺激以及睡眠和清醒状态的大规模计算机大脑模型，模拟新任务学习和记忆巩固以及各种刺激技术的效果。该项目将提出改善健康受试者和精神分裂症、阿尔茨海默病或物质使用障碍等精神和睡眠障碍患者的记忆、感知和睡眠的新方法。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会国际科学办公室共同资助。工程。德国联邦教育和研究部正在资助一个配套项目。

This study aims to understand the neural mechanisms of sleep, with the goal to optimally apply external stimulation techniques for enhancing the efficacy of deep sleep. In the industrial societies the level of sleep is on a record low level and more and more people suffer from poor sleep. Deep sleep constitutes a major part of the night, and a number of studies have shown that efficient and healthy deep sleep is important not only for cognitive performance and learning, but also for strengthening the immune system, healthy functioning of the metabolic system, and is even crucial for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Syndrome (ADHS). The promise of stimulation techniques is that they can be applied non-invasively with a potentially broad range of applications and minimal side effects, not only in clinical settings but even at home, and at a low cost. During sleep, the brain is not at rest but rather in an "off-line" state, where it strengthens and stabilizes newly encoded information to maintain it for the long-term in a process of systems consolidation. There is increasing evidence that the interplay of the major electrical brain rhythms during deep sleep is necessary for the transfer of information into long-term memory. The ultimate goals of this research project are (a) to understand the neuronal processes that allow to boost these endogenous brain rhythms by external stimulation during sleep, acoustically and electrically, and (b) to study these interventions to optimize the strengthening and coordination of sleep rhythms to improve memory and learning. The approach includes combinations of auditory stimulation and optogenetic experiments in rodents, auditory stimulation combined with transcranial direct current stimulation in humans and large-scale computer brain models of sleep and wake states, simulating new task learning and memory consolidation and the effects of various stimulation techniques. The project will suggest new approaches for improving memory, perception, and sleep both in healthy subjects and in patients with mental and sleep disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, or substance use disorders.This award is co-funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering. A companion project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF).