ArticleNeurobiology of learning and memory2017
Vocabulary learning benefits from REM after slow-wave sleep.
Article in Neurobiology of learning and memory, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Daytime Napping and Cognitive Health in Older Adults: A Systematic Review.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Promoting memory consolidation during sleep: A meta-analysis of targeted memory reactivation.Psychological bulletin · 2020Pooled it
- Article
- Creative problem-solving after experimentally provoking dreams of unsolved puzzles during REM sleep.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- Napping restores working memory and brain activation impaired by sleep deprivation.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2025Article
- Slow-wave sleep and REM sleep differentially contribute to memory representational transformation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Both slow wave and rapid eye movement sleep contribute to emotional memory consolidation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Slow Oscillation-Spindle Coupling Predicts Sequence-Based Language Learning.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Aversive memories can be weakened during human sleep via the reactivation of positive interfering memories.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Reactivating cue approached positive personality traits during sleep promotes positive self-referential processing.iScience · 2024Article
- Article
- A model of autonomous interactions between hippocampus and neocortex driving sleep-dependent memory consolidation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Targeted memory reactivation of face-name learning depends on ample and undisturbed slow-wave sleep.NPJ science of learning · 2022Article
- Resting-state occipito-frontal alpha connectome is linked to differential word learning ability in adult learners.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Targeted memory reactivation during sleep boosts intentional forgetting of spatial locations.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Overnight sleep benefits both neutral and negative direct associative and relational memory.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2019Article
- Role of normal sleep and sleep apnea in human memory processing.Nature and science of sleep · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Memory reactivation during slow-wave sleep (SWS) influences the consolidation of recently acquired knowledge. This reactivation occurs spontaneously during sleep but can also be triggered by presenting learning-related cues, a technique known as targeted memory reactivation (TMR). Here we examined whether TMR can improve vocabulary learning. Participants learned the meanings of 60 novel words. Auditory cues for half the words were subsequently presented during SWS in an afternoon nap. Memory performance for cued versus uncued words did not differ at the group level but was systematically influenced by REM sleep duration. Participants who obtained relatively greater amounts of REM showed a significant benefit for cued relative to uncued words, whereas participants who obtained little or no REM demonstrated a significant effect in the opposite direction. We propose that REM after SWS may be critical for the consolidation of highly integrative memories, such as new vocabulary. Reactivation during SWS may allow newly encoded memories to be associated with other information, but this association can include disruptive linkages with pre-existing memories. Subsequent REM sleep may then be particularly beneficial for integrating new memories into appropriate pre-existing memory networks. These findings support the general proposition that memory storage benefits optimally from a cyclic succession of SWS and REM.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.