About this Research Topic

Background

Over the last two decades, a growing body of evidence has suggested that sleep plays a significant role in the consolidation of memory. Human studies have established that a night of sleep, or even an afternoon nap, facilitates various cognitive functions, ranging from “simple” retention of paired associates to more sophisticated functions requiring the implicit and explicit generalization of stored information in novel circumstances, including gist learning, rule extraction, statistical pattern detection and the development of insight into hidden regularities. Two sleep stages, Slow-Wave-Sleep (SWS) and Rapid-Eye-Movement (REM) sleep have been often identified as being involved in these processes, with findings commonly linking one or the other with specific types of cognitive functions. It is assumed that these sleep-induced effects are achieved through the reorganization and stabilization of previously stored information, with different sleep stages taking a prominent role in reorganizing and stabilizing different types of memories.

Despite the abundance of evidence showing faciliatory effects of sleep on higher cognitive processes involving generalization, the neural mechanisms contributing to these effects are not sufficiently understood. Some animal and computational studies suggest the facilitation of cognitive processes linked to SWS might depend on the reactivation of recently-stored information in the hippocampus (so called “memory replay”) and its assimilation in the general knowledge structure residing in the neocortex, a process that is coordinated by slow-wave activity and builds on synchronized hippocampal sharp-wave ripples and cortical spindles. Nevertheless, more specific details on how such a mechanism contributes to implicit and explicit generalization processes, and why it cannot occur as efficiently during wake, are lacking. Even less is known about the mechanisms responsible for the effects of REM sleep on generalization, with very few concrete, evidence-based theories published. To that end, new perspectives, models and experimental data that shed light on these issues are warranted. In particular, the field would benefit from studies that go beyond a one-off demonstration or modeling of an effect of sleep on a particular behavioral task, and instead focus on how biologically-plausible sleep-dependent mechanisms can contribute to the various forms of generalization functions.

In this Research Topic, we seek to publish Original Research, Review Articles and hypotheses that offer new insights into the mechanisms involved in sleep-dependent generalization processes. Examples include: Effects of sleep on pattern detection, the ability to understand rules, extraction of gist, the use of encoded stimuli and experiences in new situations or familiar contexts, formation of schemas and so on. Original research may include both experimental and computational studies. Both human and animal studies are welcome, providing they focus on understanding the mechanisms contributing to the effects.

Topics could include, but not limited to:

• The difference between the effects of sleep on implicit and explicit generalization

• Sleep-induced consolidation and generalization of sequential, episodic memories

• Trade-offs between sleep-induced stabilization and generalization of memories

• Perspectives and computational models of how biological processes during REM sleep contribute to generalization

• The different ways by which REM sleep and SWS contribute to generalization and how they may complement each other

• Sleep-induced effects on the generalization of learned emotional associations to novel situations

Keywords: Sleep, REM, SWS, memory, generalization

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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