Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Sleep-induced changes in associative memory.

R Stickgold1, L Scott, C Rittenhouse

  • 1Massachusetts Medical Health Center, Harvard Medical School, 74 Fenwood Road, Boston, MA 02115, USA. rstickgold@hms.harvard.edu

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|April 10, 1999
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Dream Bizarreness as the Cognitive Correlate of Altered Neuronal Behavior in REM Sleep.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2013
Same author

Waking and dreaming consciousness: neurobiological and functional considerations.

Progress in neurobiology·2012
Same author

The neuropsychology of dreams: a clinico-anatomical study.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2011
Same author

Use of d-tubocurarine chloride and thiopentone in electroconvulsion therapy.

British medical journal·2010
Same author

The prognosis and treatment of psychiatric sequelae of head injuries.

The Medical press·2010
Same author

Odour, covering and ventilation.

Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research·2009
Same journal

Sensorimotor Adaptation of Vocal Pitch Is Impaired in Cerebellar Ataxia.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Memory in the Palm of Your Hand: Smartphone-based Methods for Measuring Memory in the Wild.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Processing Asymmetry in Object-modifying Relative Clauses: Evidence from Functional Connectivity.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Extensive Experience Remodels Neural Task Circuitry to Escape the Frontal Bottleneck and Increase Automaticity of Categorization.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Investigating the Effects of Acute Stress on Neural Mechanisms of Self-controlled Decision-making.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Distilling the Neurophenomenological Signatures of Pure Awareness during Transcendental Meditation.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2026
See all related articles

Dreaming may alter memory by changing how strongly words are linked. Research shows weak word associations are affected by REM sleep, unlike strong ones, suggesting a unique REM sleep cognition state.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Sleep Research
  • Memory Studies

Background:

  • Theories suggest dreaming alters memory's associative links, but evidence is scarce.
  • Semantic priming quantifies associative link strength by measuring activation spread between related words.
  • Testing across the sleep-wake cycle can reveal cognitive functions during sleep states.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if sleep, particularly REM sleep, alters the strength of associative links in memory.
  • To use semantic priming to assess changes in associative memory across different sleep-wake states.
  • To explore the cognitive differences between REM sleep, NREM sleep, and wakefulness.

Main Methods:

  • Subjects were tested using semantic priming before sleep, after sleep, and immediately after awakenings from REM and NREM sleep.
Keywords:
Non-programmatic

Related Experiment Videos

  • Weak priming (e.g., thief-wrong) and strong priming (e.g., hot-cold) effects were compared across conditions.
  • Three protocols were used to ensure the reliability of findings regarding priming effects.

    • Main Results:

    • Weak priming effects were state-dependent (p = 0.016), most prominent before sleep and during REM sleep.
    • Strong priming effects were not state-dependent (p = 0.89).
    • Notably, subjects awakened from REM sleep showed greater priming by weak primes than strong primes (p = 0.01), a reversal of the typical pattern.

    Conclusions:

    • Cognition during REM sleep appears qualitatively different from waking and NREM sleep.
    • A shift in associative memory systems during REM sleep may underlie the characteristic bizarre and hyperassociative nature of dreams.
    • Brainstem activity changes during REM sleep could explain these observed alterations in associative memory.