Konkoly Karen R, Morris Daniel, Cho Matthew, Hurka Kaitlyn, Torres-Platas S Gabriela, Baehr Lourdes, Paller Ken A
Psychology Department, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston IL 60208, USA.
Psychology Department, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston IL 60208, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2025 Jul 15:109229. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109229.
Dreams may partially reflect the memory reorganizing that occurs nightly, improving the usefulness of what we learn each day. However, solid evidence has yet to link dreaming with adaptive overnight memory reorganization. Establishing this link faces several challenges, including the difficulty of experimentally controlling dream content and the susceptibility of dream reports to distortion and forgetting upon awakening. Fortunately, memory consolidation can be systematically manipulated using Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR), whereby sensory stimulation during sleep can influence previously acquired memories, often reducing forgetting. Stimuli presented during sleep can also be incorporated into dreams, but the extent to which reactivating memories with TMR can influence dream content is still unclear. In the present study, we enlisted TMR to strategically influence dreams. In the evening, participants performed two distinct tasks designed to be readily incorporated into dreams, each associated with a unique sound. The associations between the two tasks and the two (counterbalanced) sounds were further reinforced in a conditioning phase just prior to sleep. The experimenter then presented one of the two sounds when participants were in REM sleep. Dream reports revealed more incorporation of task elements from the cued task than from uncued task, though incorporation was high for both tasks. Furthermore, dreaming of a task was linked with decreased negative valence and increased creativity. We conclude that this approach to dream curation provides a promising way to investigate the influence of dreaming on memory storage and other cognitive functions.
梦可能部分反映了夜间发生的记忆重组，提高了我们每天所学内容的实用性。然而，尚无确凿证据将做梦与适应性夜间记忆重组联系起来。建立这种联系面临着几个挑战，包括难以通过实验控制梦的内容，以及梦的报告在醒来时容易受到扭曲和遗忘的影响。幸运的是，可以使用定向记忆再激活（TMR）系统地操纵记忆巩固，即睡眠期间的感觉刺激可以影响先前获得的记忆，通常会减少遗忘。睡眠期间呈现的刺激也可以融入梦中，但TMR重新激活记忆对梦的内容的影响程度仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们利用TMR策略性地影响梦。晚上，参与者执行了两项不同的任务，旨在易于融入梦中，每项任务都与一种独特的声音相关联。在睡眠前的一个条件作用阶段，进一步强化了这两项任务与两种（平衡的）声音之间的关联。然后，当参与者处于快速眼动睡眠时，实验者呈现两种声音中的一种。梦的报告显示，与未提示任务相比，提示任务的任务元素更多地融入梦中，尽管两项任务的融入程度都很高。此外，梦到一项任务与负性情绪降低和创造力提高有关。我们得出结论，这种梦的策划方法为研究做梦对记忆存储和其他认知功能的影响提供了一种很有前景的方式。
