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

这个项目探讨了学习和睡眠的几个方面。我们白天获得的记忆在睡眠时被重新激活，导致大脑网络中的记忆存储发生变化。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梦的知识。在醒着的状态下，梦可能会以一种支离破碎或扭曲的方式被回忆起来，或者根本不记得。这项研究将通过允许做梦者在做梦时交流他们的梦境经历来克服这些限制。例如，利用眼球运动和肌肉抽搐的信号，做梦者可以表明他们意识到自己在做梦，实验人员可以用轻柔的话语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。该项目使用了一套创新的方法来推进对睡眠的各种认知益处的认识。先前的研究表明，空间记忆可以通过靶向记忆再激活（TMR）的方法在睡眠中改变。这种在睡眠中策略性地呈现柔和声音的方法将被改进，以研究词汇学习和解决问题的能力是否能在快速眼动睡眠或与做梦有关的情况下得到改善。为了实现这个关于梦的新视角，人们将在梦中接受采访。实验人员会轻声提问，志愿者会根据特定的眼球运动和肌肉抽搐（电生理学上很容易测量），用密码进行交流，同时保持快速眼动睡眠。人们通常会高度接受梦境，缺乏批判性评价——他们没有意识到梦境只是一个梦。在清醒梦中，一个人获得了在梦中难以捉摸的洞察力。然而，清醒梦很少能被随意召唤，而且在极少数情况下，当人们在实验室里成功地做了清醒梦时，他们往往会忘记预先设定的目标。克服这些挑战的方法是：(a)睡前训练，将具体的声音提示与行动计划战略性地联系起来；(b)监测睡眠生理以协调刺激；(c)用声音提醒做梦者评估他们的经历，以确定他们是否在做梦，然后进行特定的活动，如排练最近学过的外语单词，或试图解决一个认知难题。通过这些方法增加清醒梦的频率将使在互动梦过程中检查认知成为可能。这个项目的结果将扩大对睡眠期间认知能力的理解，并将提供关于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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.