Dependence on REM Sleep of Overnight Improvement of a Perceptual Skill
Abstract
Several paradigms of perceptual learning suggest that practice can trigger long-term, experience-dependent changes in the adult visual system of humans. As shown here, performance of a basic visual discrimination task improved after a normal night's sleep. Selective disruption of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep resulted in no performance gain during a comparable sleep interval, although non-REM slow-wave sleep disruption did not affect improvement. On the other hand, deprivation of REM sleep had no detrimental effects on the performance of a similar, but previously learned, task. These results indicate that a process of human memory consolidation, active during sleep, is strongly dependent on REM sleep.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- July 1994
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.8036518
- Bibcode:
- 1994Sci...265..679K