Promoting subjective preferences in simple economic choices during nap

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Decision Science

Background:

• Sleep benefits memory consolidation, particularly for motivationally relevant information.
• The impact of sleep on reward evaluation and value-based decision-making remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how sleep influences reward evaluation and associated behaviors.
• To determine if sleep can selectively bias preferences based on reward cues.

Main Methods:

• Participants underwent midday naps with covert, auditory cues (spoken names of snack items) associated with rewards.
• Post-sleep preference for cued vs. uncued items was assessed using simple economic choices.
• Neurophysiological signals during sleep and computational modeling were used to analyze the effects.

Main Results:

• Sleep cueing significantly enhanced preference for the cued snack item compared to uncued items.
• This preference enhancement was sleep-dependent and correlated with cue-induced neurophysiological signals.
• Computational modeling indicated accelerated evidence accumulation for cued options post-sleep.

Conclusions:

• Neurocognitive processing during sleep can selectively and flexibly fine-tune subjective preferences.
• Sleep plays a role in modulating reward evaluation, impacting value-based decisions.
• Covert reward-associated cues during sleep can bias future choices.