Prof. Dr. Jan Born
Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Germany
Whereas memories are optimally encoded and retrieved when the brain is awake, the consolidation and formation of long-term memory requires an offline mode of processing as optimally established only during sleep. Based on evidence from behavioral and neurobiological studies in humans and rodents, I will consider the formation of long-term memory during sleep as an “active systems consolidation” process in which the repeated neuronal replay of representations originating from the hippocampus during slow-wave sleep (SWS) leads to a gradual transformation and integration of representations in extrahippocampal, mainly neocortical networks. I will highlight three features of this process: (i) Hippocampal replay that, by capturing episodic memory aspects, drives consolidation of both hippocampus-dependent and non-hippocampus-dependent memory; (ii) brain oscillations hallmarking SWS and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, respectively, which provide mechanisms to regulate both information flow across distant brain networks and local synaptic plasticity; and (iii) qualitative transformations of memories during sleep-dependent systems consolidation resulting in abstract schema-like representations. Here, I will emphasize the importance of sleep for memory transformation during early development.
Online via Zoom: https://uni-rostock-de.zoom.us/j/62597698815?pwd=cDgraitLN3NTU0pxQ2M1dDZTQ2U1UT09
Virginia Bolowski