Sleep Benefits Memory for Semantic Category Structure While Preserving Exemplar-Specific Information

Semantic memory encompasses knowledge about both the properties that typify concepts (e.g. robins, like all birds, have wings) as well as the properties that individuate conceptually related items (e.g. robins, in particular, have red breasts). We investigate the impact of sleep on new semantic lear...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2017-11, Vol.7 (1), p.14869-13, Article 14869
Main Authors: Schapiro, Anna C., McDevitt, Elizabeth A., Chen, Lang, Norman, Kenneth A., Mednick, Sara C., Rogers, Timothy T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/1385/1817
631/378/1385/2641
631/378/1385/519
631/378/2649
631/477/2811
Adolescent
Adult
Female
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Learning
Learning - physiology
Memory
Memory - physiology
multidisciplinary
NREM sleep
REM sleep
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Semantics
Sleep
Sleep - physiology
Sleep, REM - physiology
Wakefulness - physiology
Wings
Young Adult
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Summary:Semantic memory encompasses knowledge about both the properties that typify concepts (e.g. robins, like all birds, have wings) as well as the properties that individuate conceptually related items (e.g. robins, in particular, have red breasts). We investigate the impact of sleep on new semantic learning using a property inference task in which both kinds of information are initially acquired equally well. Participants learned about three categories of novel objects possessing some properties that were shared among category exemplars and others that were unique to an exemplar, with exposure frequency varying across categories. In Experiment 1, memory for shared properties improved and memory for unique properties was preserved across a night of sleep, while memory for both feature types declined over a day awake. In Experiment 2, memory for shared properties improved across a nap, but only for the lower-frequency category, suggesting a prioritization of weakly learned information early in a sleep period. The increase was significantly correlated with amount of REM, but was also observed in participants who did not enter REM, suggesting involvement of both REM and NREM sleep. The results provide the first evidence that sleep improves memory for the shared structure of object categories, while simultaneously preserving object-unique information.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-12884-5