Impairment of learning by cueing during postlearning slow-wave sleep in rats

Rats were trained in a two-way shuttle avoidance task, 20 trials per day for 3 consecutive days. The conditioned stimulus preceding a footshock was an ear shock in expt. 1, it was a tone in expt. 2. In both experiments, experimental animals received non-awakening ear shocks during 6 periods of slow-wave sleep (SWS) following each conditioning session. Control animals received no ear shock during SWS. Results showed that ear shocks delivered during SWS impaired subsequent learning performances only in expt. 1, i.e. when they were relevant to the learning task and could act as a reminder treatment.