Sleep, dreaming and memory

Question 1

What does EEG stand for?

Answer 1

Electroencephalogram

Question 2

What is electroencephalogram?

Answer 2

This is a test that measures electrical activity in the brain using small metal discs attached to the scalp.

Question 3

What does EOG stand for?

Answer 3

Electrooculogram

Question 4

What is electrooculogram?

Answer 4

This is a test that measures the existing resting electrical potential between the cornea and Bruch’s membrane.

Question 5

What does EMG stand for?

Answer 5

This measures muscle response/electrical activity in response to nerve stimulation of nerves.

Question 6

How many sleep stages are there?

Answer 6

4 stages plus REM

Question 7

What happens in stage 1?

Answer 7

This is the transition period between wakefulness and sleep. this lasts around 5/10 mins.

Question 8

What happens in stage 2?

Answer 8

This is when the brains begin to produce sleep spindles and your body temp drops and heart rate slows down. This last approx 20mins.

Question 9

What happens at stage 3?

Answer 9

Your muscles relax, blood pressure and breathing rate drops. This is when deep sleep occurs.

Question 10

What happens at stage 4?

Answer 10

This is when the brain becomes more active. The body become relaxed and immobilized. This is when dreams occur and our eyes move rapidly.

Question 11

REM sleep?

Answer 11

Rapid eye movement. High correlation with dreaming.

Question 12

What does SWS stand for?

Answer 12

Slow wave sleep. This occurs in stage 3 and is the deepest phase of non-rapid eye movement.

Question 13

How does sleep relate to memory?

Answer 13

Sleep improves procedural memory (skills). Both sleep and REM sleep play an active role in consolidation of declarative memory, which in turn allows memory traces to be actively reprocessed and strengthened during sleep. leading to improved performance in memory recall.

Question 14

When is declarative memory enhanced?

Answer 14

By early or SWS rich sleep.

Question 15

When is procedural memory enhanced?

Answer 15

By late or REM rich sleep.

Question 16

Who had a study to do with procedural and declarative memory?

Answer 16

Wagner et al 2004

Question 17

How does sleep and insight relate to each other?

Answer 17

The Number reduction task (NRT) is used to study if and how sleep does not only reiterate new experiences but may lead to new insights.

Question 18

How does sleep and creativity relate to each other?

Answer 18

Thomas Edison proposed that a technique that woke people during the wake sleep transition led to creative insights.

Question 19

What is the hypnagogia?

Answer 19

this is the transition between wakefulness and sleep

Question 20

What is the hippocampus?

Answer 20

Hippocampus is a complex brain structure embedded deep into temporal lobe. It has a major role in learning and memory.

Question 21

These are spontaneous neuronal population events that occur in the hippocampus during sleep and quiet restfulness.

Answer 21

Sharp- wave ripple events.

Question 22

Define sleep spindles.

Answer 22

Sleep spindles are an electroencephalographic (EEG) hallmark of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and are believed to mediate many sleep-related functions, from memory consolidation to cortical development. This provides a mechanism for memory consolidation.