Sounding It Out: Auditory Stimulation and Overnight Memory Processing

Overview

Journal Curr Sleep Med Rep

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2021 Nov 1

PMID 34722123

Citations 5

Authors

Marcus O Harrington

Scott A Cairney

Affiliations

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Abstract

Purpose Of Review: Auditory stimulation is a technique that can enhance neural oscillations linked to overnight memory consolidation. In this review, we evaluate the impacts of auditory stimulation on the neural oscillations of sleep and associated memory processes in a variety of populations.

Recent Findings: Cortical EEG recordings of slow-wave sleep (SWS) are characterised by two cardinal oscillations: slow oscillations (SOs) and sleep spindles. Auditory stimulation delivered in SWS enhances SOs and phase-coupled spindle activity in healthy children and adults, children with ADHD, adults with mild cognitive impairment and patients with major depression. Under certain conditions, auditory stimulation bolsters the benefits of SWS for memory consolidation, although further work is required to fully understand the factors affecting stimulation-related memory gains. Recent work has turned to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, demonstrating that auditory stimulation can be used to manipulate REM sleep theta oscillations.

Summary: Auditory stimulation enhances oscillations linked to overnight memory processing and shows promise as a technique for enhancing the memory benefits of sleep.

Citing Articles

Slow oscillation-sleep spindle coupling is associated with fear extinction retention in trauma-exposed individuals.

Denis D, Bottary R, Cunningham T, Davidson P, Yuksel C, Milad M bioRxiv. 2025; .

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Auditory processing up to cortex is maintained during sleep spindles.

Jourde H, Coffey E PNAS Nexus. 2024; 3(11):pgae479.

PMID: 39588317 PMC: 11586671. DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae479.

Acoustically evoked K-complexes together with sleep spindles boost verbal declarative memory consolidation in healthy adults.

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PMID: 39160150 PMC: 11333484. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-67701-7.

How do the sleep features that characterise depression impact memory?.

Harrington M, Reeve S, Bower J, Renoult L Emerg Top Life Sci. 2023; 7(5):499-512.

PMID: 38054537 PMC: 10754336. DOI: 10.1042/ETLS20230100.

The Portiloop: A deep learning-based open science tool for closed-loop brain stimulation.

Valenchon N, Bouteiller Y, Jourde H, LHeureux X, Sobral M, Coffey E PLoS One. 2022; 17(8):e0270696.

PMID: 35994482 PMC: 9394839. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270696.

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