REM SLEEP AND MEMORY

描述(申请人摘要)：哺乳动物的行为研究表明 快速眼动睡眠对随后的许多记忆任务的执行很重要。这个 认为睡眠(特别是快速眼动，或快速眼动睡眠)可以起到 自从弗洛伊德指出梦是一种 “不是胡说八道”，而是整理经历和发泄情绪的时候。 其他人则认为快速眼动睡眠是用来遗忘的。我们试图确定 海马区的神经元，一种对某些类型的神经元至关重要的结构 学习和记忆，在快速眼动睡眠期间随机放电，或者，相反，表现出 有序的活动根据先前的经验进行了不同的修改。海马体 特别容易接受这样的调查，因为 海马神经元被认为形成认知图谱并控制学习 新的里程碑式的关系。单个细胞的记录而大鼠 主动导航他们的环境，显示特定地点的激发(任何 特定的神经元大多是静默的，但在特定的神经元上强烈地放电 环境中的区域，其位置因细胞而异)。 初步结果表明，经验不仅影响射击率， 以及快速眼动睡眠期间的神经活动模式。位相烧成 模式反过来又表明了一种机制，通过这种机制，最近的记忆 在快速眼动睡眠期间，事件可能被加强，而熟悉的事件可能被削弱。这 提案旨在确定小说的生理转折点 记忆在海马体的临时记忆存储中变得熟悉 在破坏和增强记忆的条件下测试这些模式 整合。这一努力将有助于记忆的知识库 从短期商店到长期商店的整合机制，这样我们就可以 最终设计出有效的方法来提高记忆和学习能力 受损的个体。

DESCRIPTION (applicant's abstract): Behavioral studies in mammals demonstrate that REM sleep is important to subsequent performance of many memory tasks. The idea that sleep (particularly rapid eye movement, or REM sleep) could serve a cognitive function has remained popular since Freud stated that dreams were "not nonsense" but a time to sort out experiences and discharge emotions. Others have proposed that REM sleep is for forgetting. We seek to determine whether neurons in the hippocampus, a structure critical to certain types of learning and memory, discharge at random during REM sleep or, instead, show ordered activity differentially modified by prior experience. The hippocampus is particularly amenable to such inquiry, since the ensemble-firing pattern of hippocampal neurons is thought to form a cognitive map and control the learning of new landmark relationships. Recordings from individual cells while rats actively navigate their environment reveal place-specific firing (any particular neuron is mostly silent, but discharges robustly at a particular area in the environment, the location of which varies from cell to cell). Preliminary results indicate that experience affects not only the firing rate, but also the pattern of neural activity during REM sleep. The phase-firing pattern, in turn, indicates a mechanism through which memories for recent events may be strengthened and familiar events weakened during REM sleep. This proposal aims to determine the physiological turning point at which novel memories become familiar in the temporary memory store of the hippocampus and test these patterns under conditions that disrupt and enhance memory consolidation. This effort will contribute to the knowledge base of memory consolidation mechanisms from short to long-term stores, so that we may ultimately devise effective ways to improve memory and learning capabilities of impaired individuals.