Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Sleep benefits subsequent hippocampal functioning

Nature Neuroscience volume 12, pages 122–123 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Sleep before learning benefits memory encoding through unknown mechanisms. We found that even a mild sleep disruption that suppressed slow-wave activity and induced shallow sleep, but did not reduce total sleep time, was sufficient to affect subsequent successful encoding-related hippocampal activation and memory performance in healthy human subjects. Implicit learning was not affected. Our results suggest that the hippocampus is particularly sensitive to shallow, but intact, sleep.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Changes in sleep spectral density after shallow-sleep induction.
Figure 2: Shallow sleep affects hippocampal activation.

References

  1. Yoo, S.S., Hu, P.T., Gujar, N., Jolesz, F.A. & Walker, M.P. Nat. Neurosci. 10, 385–392 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Van Cauter, E., Leproult, R. & Plat, L. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 284, 861–868 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Gron, G. et al. Neurobiol. Aging 24, 453–462 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Drewes, A.M. et al. J. Musculoskelet. Pain 8, 49–67 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Dolan, R.J. & Fletcher, P.C. Nature 388, 582–585 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Stern, C.E. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 8660–8665 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ungerleider, L.G. & Haxby, J.V. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 4, 157–165 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. McDermott, C.M. et al. J. Neurosci. 23, 9687–9695 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Marshall, L., Helgadottir, H., Molle, M. & Born, J. Nature 444, 610–613 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Buzsáki, G. Rhythms of the Brain (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  11. Lubenov, E.V. & Siapas, A.G. Neuron 58, 118–131 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Collins, D.R., Pelletier, J.G. & Pare, D. J. Neurophysiol. 85, 1661–1672 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Isomura, Y. et al. Neuron 52, 871–882 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank K. Plugge, I. Beckmann and R. Strijers for assistance in subject screening. This study was funded by the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research, the Hague, VIDI Innovation Grants 016.025.041 and 016.095.359, Integrated Cognition Project Grant 051-04-010, and by Internationale Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek grant 05511. Financial support for imaging costs was supplied by the Graduate School Neurosciences Amsterdam.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sleep and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Meibergdreef 47, Amsterdam, 1105BA, The Netherlands

    Ysbrand D Van Der Werf, Ellemarije Altena, Ernesto J Sanz-Arigita, José C Vis & Eus J W Van Someren

  2. Departments of Clinical Neurophysiology, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, PO Box 7057, Amsterdam, 1007, MB, The Netherlands

    Ysbrand D Van Der Werf, Wim De Rijke & Eus J W Van Someren

  3. Neurology, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, PO Box 7057, Amsterdam, 1007, MB, The Netherlands

    Ellemarije Altena

  4. Radiology, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, PO Box 7057, Amsterdam, 1007, MB, The Netherlands

    Menno M Schoonheim & Ernesto J Sanz-Arigita

Authors
  1. Ysbrand D Van Der Werf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ellemarije Altena
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Menno M Schoonheim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ernesto J Sanz-Arigita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. José C Vis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Wim De Rijke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Eus J W Van Someren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Y.D.v.d.W. carried out the data acquisitions, the fMRI and EEG analyses, and wrote the manuscript. E.A. performed the data acquisitions and co-wrote the manuscript. M.M.S. and E.J.S.-A. carried out the fMRI analyses. J.C.V. performed the sleep scoring. W.d.R. devised the sleep manipulation tool. E.J.W.v.S. supervised the project, performed the statistical analyses of the EEG data and co-wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ysbrand D Van Der Werf.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 231 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Van Der Werf, Y., Altena, E., Schoonheim, M. et al. Sleep benefits subsequent hippocampal functioning. Nat Neurosci 12, 122–123 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2253

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2253

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing