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Abstract

Evidence indicates that sleep after learning is critical for the subsequent consolidation of human memory. Whether sleep before learning is equally essential for the initial formation of new memories, however, remains an open question. We report that a single night of sleep deprivation produces a significant deficit in hippocampal activity during episodic memory encoding, resulting in worse subsequent retention. Furthermore, these hippocampal impairments instantiate a different pattern of functional connectivity in basic alertness networks of the brainstem and thalamus. We also find that unique prefrontal regions predict the success of encoding for sleep-deprived individuals relative to those who have slept normally. These results demonstrate that an absence of prior sleep substantially compromises the neural and behavioral capacity for committing new experiences to memory. It therefore appears that sleep before learning is critical in preparing the human brain for next-day memory formation-a worrying finding considering society's increasing erosion of sleep time.

MeSH Terms
    Adolescent
    Adult
    Analysis of Variance
    Brain Mapping
    Female
    Hippocampus/blood supply
    Hippocampus/physiopathology
    Humans
    Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods
    Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods
    Male
    Memory/physiology*
    Neuropsychological Tests
    Oxygen/blood
    Sleep Deprivation/pathology
    Sleep Deprivation/physiopathology*

Substances
    Oxygen