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Alizadeh Asfestani M, Braganza E, Schwidetzky J, Santiago J, Soekadar S, Born J, Feld GB. Overnight memory consolidation facilitates rather than interferes with new learning of similar materials-a study probing NMDA receptors. Neuropsychopharmacology 2018; 43:2292-2298. [PMID: 30046156 PMCID: PMC6135744 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-018-0139-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2017] [Revised: 06/18/2018] [Accepted: 06/22/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Although sleep-dependent consolidation and its neurochemical underpinnings have been strongly researched, less is known about how consolidation during sleep affects subsequent learning. Since sleep enhances memory, it can be expected to pro-actively interfere with learning after sleep, in particular of similar materials. This pro-active interference should be enhanced by substances that benefit consolidation during sleep, such as D-cycloserine. We tested this hypothesis in two groups (Sleep, Wake) of young healthy participants receiving on one occasion D-cycloserine (175 mg) and on another occasion placebo, according to a double-blind balanced crossover design. Treatment was administered after participants had learned a set of word pairs (A-B list) and before nocturnal retention periods of sleep vs. wakefulness. After D-cycloserine blood plasma levels had dropped to negligible amounts, i.e., the next day in the evening, participants learned, in three sequential runs, new sets of word pairs. One list-to enhance interference-consisted of the same cue words as the original set paired with a new target word (A-C list) and the other of completely new cue words (D-E set). Unexpectedly, during post-retention learning the A-C interference list was generally better learned than the completely new D-E list, which suggests that consolidation of previously encoded similar material enhances memory integration rather than pro-active interference. Consistent with this view, new learning of word pairs was better after sleep than wakefulness. Similarly, D-cycloserine generally enhanced learning of new word pairs, compared to placebo. This effect being independent of sleep or wakefulness, leads us to speculate that D-cycloserine, in addition to enhancing sleep-dependent consolidation, might mediate a time-dependent process of active forgetting.
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Affiliation(s)
- M. Alizadeh Asfestani
- 0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - E. Braganza
- 0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - J. Schwidetzky
- 0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - J. Santiago
- 0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany ,grid.452622.5German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Tübingen, Germany ,0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - S. Soekadar
- 0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - J. Born
- 0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany ,0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Present Address: Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - G. B. Feld
- 0000 0001 2190 1447grid.10392.39Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany ,0000000121901201grid.83440.3bDivision of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK ,0000000121901201grid.83440.3bDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Science, Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP UK
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