Sleep, dreaming and memory Flashcards
Lecture 9
What does EEG stand for?
Electroencephalogram
What is electroencephalogram?
This is a test that measures electrical activity in the brain using small metal discs attached to the scalp.
What does EOG stand for?
Electrooculogram
What is electrooculogram?
This is a test that measures the existing resting electrical potential between the cornea and Bruch’s membrane.
What does EMG stand for?
This measures muscle response/electrical activity in response to nerve stimulation of nerves.
How many sleep stages are there?
4 stages plus REM
What happens in stage 1?
This is the transition period between wakefulness and sleep. this lasts around 5/10 mins.
What happens in stage 2?
This is when the brains begin to produce sleep spindles and your body temp drops and heart rate slows down. This last approx 20mins.
What happens at stage 3?
Your muscles relax, blood pressure and breathing rate drops. This is when deep sleep occurs.
What happens at stage 4?
This is when the brain becomes more active. The body become relaxed and immobilized. This is when dreams occur and our eyes move rapidly.
REM sleep?
Rapid eye movement. High correlation with dreaming.
What does SWS stand for?
Slow wave sleep. This occurs in stage 3 and is the deepest phase of non-rapid eye movement.
How does sleep relate to memory?
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.
When is declarative memory enhanced?
By early or SWS rich sleep.
When is procedural memory enhanced?
By late or REM rich sleep.
Who had a study to do with procedural and declarative memory?
Wagner et al 2004
How does sleep and insight relate to each other?
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.
How does sleep and creativity relate to each other?
Thomas Edison proposed that a technique that woke people during the wake sleep transition led to creative insights.
What is the hypnagogia?
this is the transition between wakefulness and sleep
What is the hippocampus?
Hippocampus is a complex brain structure embedded deep into temporal lobe. It has a major role in learning and memory.
These are spontaneous neuronal population events that occur in the hippocampus during sleep and quiet restfulness.
Sharp- wave ripple events.
Define sleep spindles.
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.
