This study aims to understand the neural mechanisms of sleep, with the goal to optimally apply external stimulation techniques for enhancing the efficacy of deep sleep. In the industrial societies the level of sleep is on a record low level and more and more people suffer from poor sleep. Deep sleep constitutes a major part of the night, and a number of studies have shown that efficient and healthy deep sleep is important not only for cognitive performance and learning, but also for strengthening the immune system, healthy functioning of the metabolic system, and is even crucial for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Syndrome (ADHS). The promise of stimulation techniques is that they can be applied non-invasively with a potentially broad range of applications and minimal side effects, not only in clinical settings but even at home, and at a low cost.
During sleep, the brain is not at rest but rather in an "off-line" state, where it strengthens and stabilizes newly encoded information to maintain it for the long-term in a process of systems consolidation. There is increasing evidence that the interplay of the major electrical brain rhythms during deep sleep is necessary for the transfer of information into long-term memory. The ultimate goals of this research project are (a) to understand the neuronal processes that allow to boost these endogenous brain rhythms by external stimulation during sleep, acoustically and electrically, and (b) to study these interventions to optimize the strengthening and coordination of sleep rhythms to improve memory and learning. The approach includes combinations of auditory stimulation and optogenetic experiments in rodents, auditory stimulation combined with transcranial direct current stimulation in humans and large-scale computer brain models of sleep and wake states, simulating new task learning and memory consolidation and the effects of various stimulation techniques. The project will suggest new approaches for improving memory, perception, and sleep both in healthy subjects and in patients with mental and sleep disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, or substance use disorders.
This award is co-funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering. A companion project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF).
