Why do some memories fade while

others endure?
Ah, the age-old question: why do we remember what we remember?
One possible mechanism is selective “memory replay” during sleep, in which
the brain reactivates specific patterns of neuronal firing as seen during
learning. In other words, memories that are rehearsed during sleep will most
likely be retained (“consolidated” in neurojargon) in the long run. Studies in
rats imply that not all memories are equal: periods involving reward
information or crucial choice-points – “important” memories – are
preferentially replayed and consolidated. The same seems to happen in
humans – you probably remember your “emotionally salient” first kiss much
better than what you had for breakfast that morning. Is replay responsible
for this selectivity? Does replay happen when you’re asleep or awake? Can
we manipulate replay to remember what would’ve been forgotten?

Delphine Oudietete et al. (2013) The Role of Memory Reactivation

during Wakefulness and Sleep in Determining Which Memories
Endure. J. Neurosci. 33(15): 6672-6678.

To answer these questions, researchers worked with 60 young

volunteers, and asked them to remember the location of objects on a screen
(see figure below). Each object had a value displayed with it to inform
volunteers how much money they could make if they recalled the location
correctly. A distinctive sound was played for each object (“meow” for cat and
“woof” for dog) – as you will see, these sounds are the puppet strings used
later to manipulate memory replay.

After learning, participants were separated into four groups. Groups 1&
2 went for a 90min power nap. For group 2, researchers played sounds
associated with half of the low-value objects during a phase of sleep called
slow-wave sleep (e.g. researchers played only "meow" even though both cat
(associated) and dog (not associated) are both low-value objects). The idea is
those sounds will act as cues to trigger replay of associated low-value
memories. Group 1 was left alone to snooze in peace. Groups 3 & 4 stayed
awake. Group 3 watched a relaxing nature documentary while group 4
worked through a bunch of difficult memory tasks. During these tasks,
researchers played sounds characteristic of half of the low-value objects in
the background, similar to group 2. Because the task was so taxing,
researchers assumed group 4 would not be able to pay attention to the
sounds. In a sense, this design mimics the unconscious perception of sounds
during sleep.

Testing the power-nappers for recall showed that while memory

performance decreased in general, high-value object locations were
remembered better than low-valued ones after sleep. However, playing
sounds associated with low-value objects during sleep “rescued” the
memory, to the extent that memory retention was similar for high- and low-
valued objects. This seemed to work best when the sounds were played
during slow-wave sleep: sound cues presented in another stage of sleep
weren’t nearly as helpful. Surprisingly, sound cues helped the participants
remember the whole category of low-value object locations better, not just
the half directly associated with the sounds. Using our cat/dog example as
above, playing "meow" during sleep enhanced memory retainment for both
cat AND dog.

A similar trend showed up in the waking groups, with participants

showing less error in remembering high-value object locations upon recall.
While sound cues also enhanced retention of low-value object memories,
further analysis showed that this was specific to the ones directly associated
with the sounds, not the entire category.

So what makes us remember what we remember? Well, memories are

selectively retained during both wakefulness and sleep, depending on their
value. This selectivity seems to be driven by memory reactivation. Memories
with a high (monetary) value are (probably) preferentially replayed and
consolidated, as seen by the fact that high-valued objects show less memory
decline. It’s more than likely that the same advantage holds for other types
of salient (striking) memories. In fact, some researchers propose that
disrupting replay and consolidation during sleep can weaken traumatic
memories and reduce the chance of developing post-traumatic stress
disorders.

Conversely, low-value memories can be saved from forgetting by

artificially driving their reactivation through an associated cue. Presumably,
this is because cues can cause reactivation of associated memories,
increasing their replay and subsequent consolidation. Unfortunately, without
sticking electrodes into the brain to record neural activity, we can’t be sure
the sound cues in this study are triggering memory replay.

Which makes me wonder: What if you give cues corresponding to high-

value objects during sleep and wakefulness? Will this strengthen the memory
even more? Or will it eventually start interfering with the memory? Does the
characteristic of the cue matter? Here it seems that the cues inherently
reflect the nature of the object. What if a "baaahhh" is paired with a dog?
Would this still strengthen the dog-related low-value memory? Why do sound
cues enhance memory retention of the entire category of low-value objects
when given during sleep, but increases only cue-associated memories during
wakefulness? Can we specifically enhance individual memories during sleep?
What happens if the cue is given throughout the entire sleep cycle, instead
of just slow-wave sleep?

Finally, this study suggests we may be able to "sleep hack" our way
into remembering several different types of memories better.

As shown above, memories can be explicit (facts, visual memory,

abstract knowledge) or implicit (certain motor skills you can do without
thinking). A recent study in Nature Neuroscience showed that replaying a
newly learned piano melody during sleep helps people perform the melody
better upon awakening, demonstrating that sound cue-induced reactivation
can enhance motor (implicit) memories. This study suggests that explicit
memories may also be open to sleep hacking. While I don't want to jump to
conclusions, maybe next time I'll try falling asleep to my study playlist and
see what happens.

Oudiette D, Antony JW, Creery JD, & Paller KA (2013). The Role of
Memory Reactivation during Wakefulness and Sleep in Determining
Which Memories Endure. The Journal of neuroscience : the official
journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 33 (15), 6672-8 PMID:
23575863
Citation: (2013, April 15) Why do some memories fade while others
endure?? Neurofantastic. Retrieved March, 15, 2020 from
https://neurofantastic.com/brain/2017/1/12/why-do-some-memories-fade-while-
others-endure