REM Sleep and Memory

摘要 睡眠在记忆巩固过程中的重要性在男性中得到了广泛的接受和深入的研究。我们 对睡眠特定阶段的神经活动模式如何促进 加强、削弱和重组记忆网络。我们和其他人已经发现，快速眼球 运动(REM)睡眠持续时间和theta节奏的强度，这是电活动的特征模式 在快速眼动睡眠中常见，有助于记忆处理。快速眼动睡眠的重要调节因素之一 记忆巩固是脑干中的蓝斑核，它陷入沉默，从而允许 反转学习所必需的突触去增强。尽管去甲肾上腺素的存在在 清醒促进突触的加强，它在快速眼动睡眠中的存在可能是不适应的 其中新信息必须被集成到旧的存储模式中。我们实验室的工作已经确定了 快速眼动睡眠中蓝斑沉默对正确反转学习的重要作用。睡眠的其他特征 在学习中也很重要。然而，蓝斑是否也陷入沉默是完全未知的 雌性的快速眼动睡眠。在蓝斑上发现雌激素受体，对 对应激刺激的反应。循环性激素(如雌激素)似乎也会影响睡眠质量。 人类。我们试图研究睡眠和蓝斑活动是如何在动情周期中改变的。 并观察这些参数的变化如何影响大脑的记忆巩固机制。 睡眠，使用恐惧条件作用、消退和消退回忆依赖于海马区的学习范式 学习和巩固睡眠。鉴于女性更容易患焦虑症，我们想 确定睡眠中不适当的LC活动，特别是在低激素阶段，是否会导致恐惧 记忆巩固缺陷。在此授权期内所作的基本发现应能提供 关于发情周期如何改变睡眠特征和大脑区域的开创性知识 学习，以便今后能够在解决女性心理健康问题上取得进展。

ABSTRACT The importance of sleep in the memory consolidation process is well accepted and well studied in males. We have generated a good understanding of how neural activity patterns during specific stages of sleep facilitate strengthening, weakening, and reorganization of memory networks. We and others have found that, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep duration and the strength of the theta rhythm, the featured pattern of electrical activity common in REM sleep, contributes to memory processing. One of the important regulators of REM sleep for memory consolidation is the nucleus locus coeruleus in the brainstem which falls silent and thereby allows the depotentiation of synapses necessary for reversal learning. Although the presence of norepinephrine during waking encourages strengthening of synapses, its presence in REM sleep may be maladaptive in the case where new information must be integrated into an old memory schema. Work in our lab has identified the important role of locus coeruleus silence during REM sleep for proper reversal learning. Other features of sleep are also important in learning. However it is entirely unknown whether the locus coeruleus also falls silent in REM sleep in females. Estrogen receptors are found on the locus coeruleus, providing a set-limit function on reactivity to stressful stimuli. Cycling gonadal hormones (like estrogen) also seem to affect sleep quality in humans. We seek to investigate how sleep and locus coeruleus activity is modified across the estrus cycle in females, and see how changes in these parameters might influence mechanisms of memory consolidation in sleep, using a fear conditioning, extinction, and extinction recall learning paradigm dependent on hippocampal learning and on sleep consolidation. Given that females are more vulnerable to anxiety disorders, we want to determine if inappropriate LC activity during sleep, particularly during low hormone phases, contributes to fear memory consolidation deficits. The fundamental discoveries made in this grant period should provide groundbreaking knowledge in how the estrous cycle alters sleep features and brain areas that are important in learning so that future advances can be made in addressing mental health in females.