Cerebral asymmetries in sleep-dependent processes of memory consolidation

Preference for previously seen, unfamiliar objects reflects a memory bias on affective judgment, known as the "mere exposure effect" (MEE). Here, we investigated the effect of time, post-exposure sleep, and the brain hemisphere solicited on preference generalization toward objects viewed in different perspectives. When presented in the right visual field (RVF), which promotes preferential processing in the left hemisphere, same and mirrored exemplars were preferred immediately after exposure. MEE generalized to much dissimilar views after three nights of sleep. Conversely, object presentation in the left visual field (LVF), promoting right hemisphere processing, elicited a MEE for same views immediately after exposure, then for mirror views after sleep. Most importantly, sleep deprivation during the first post-exposure night, although followed by two recovery nights, extinguished MEE for all views in the LVF but not in the RVF. Besides demonstrating that post-exposure time and sleep facilitate the generalization process by which we integrate various representations of an object, our results suggest that mostly in the right hemisphere, sleep may be mandatory to consolidate the memory bias underlying affective preference. These interhemispheric differences tentatively call for a reappraisal of the role of cerebral asymmetries in wake- and sleep-dependent processes of memory consolidation.