In this episode we take a neuroethological approach to sleep, and discover why songbirds are such a good model system for studying sleep's role in learning. These include advantages like songbirds' sleep-wake patterns and sleep architecture being more similar to human's than rodents', the fact that songbirds are strongly motivated to learn their songs, which can then be easily assessed for accuracy, and the observation that population-level neuronal replay in the song system is often very easy to identify, since patterns of neural firing during replay can actually sound like the songs.  W ..read more

In this episode we ask Gina Poe, a sleep scientist from UCLA, about her seminal work on both REM and non-REM sleep. We talk about the role of memory replay in REM, how to measure such replay in rats, as well as the ways in which REM impacts upon emotional representations, and may even help us to combat post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  We also discuss the importance of sleep spindles for updating conceptual knowledge.  Finally, we describe Professor Poe's ground-breaking findings on local sleep and how these may change the face of sleep research in the future. Produced by: Eni ..read more

In this episode, we interviewed Professor Reto Huber, who leads a research group at the University Children’s Hospital, Zurich. Reto’s interests encompass sleep disorders, development, synaptic plasticity and regeneration.  In this episode we discuss local sleep, a process whereby different parts of the brain express different depths of sleep or wake at different times. We consider the relationship of local sleep to phenomena such as sleep walking and sleep talking, and Reto explains a series of experiments exploring how local sleep relates to learning.  We then consider the use of d ..read more

In this episode, we interviewed Professor Reto Huber, who leads a research group at the University Children’s Hospital, Zurich. Reto’s interests encompass sleep disorders, development, synaptic plasticity and regeneration.  In this episode we discuss local sleep, a process whereby different parts of the brain express different depths of sleep or wake at different times. We consider the relationship of local sleep to phenomena such as sleep walking and sleep talking, and Reto explains a series of experiments exploring how local sleep relates to learning.  We then consider the use of d ..read more

In this episode, we talk to Dr Daniel Bendor from University College London. Daniel's work focuses on rodent studies of place cells in the hippocampus.  We discuss the phenomena of memory replay in which place cell activity mimics  patterns of activity that occurred while the rodent was performing a task in wake.  We also discuss how this process can be manipulated using targeted memory reactivation (TMR).  From this we discuss how the TMR instead of triggering a reactivation of a memory could instead be biasing the brain to replay the memory which is cued.  We go on ..read more

In this episode, we talk to Professor Wenbiao Gan from the Neuroscience and Physiology and Skirball Institute at New York University School of Medicine. Professor Gan tells us about how he started to become interested in studying sleep and its impact on learning and memory. He talks about intriguing and hands-on ways to assess the formation and elimination of dendritic spines in  the mouse cortex, and how different experimental tasks like running backwards on a treadmill influence spine formation with or without sleep. Some counterintuitive results are presented and Professor Gan also s ..read more

In this episode we talk to  Professor Manuel Schabus  and Professor Kerstin Hoedlmoser from the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Salzburg.  In this episode, we discuss their work on the development of sleep-in babies, first discussing what baby sleep is like and how it differs from older children and adults in regard to activity and sleep stages and specifically sleep spindles and why we think this is. We also look at the difficulties of recording sleep in babies and what other methods are used to analyse and assess baby sleep.  We then look in depth ..read more

In this episode, we speak with Professor Bob Stickgold, one of the most prominent researchers in the field of sleep science. Bob tells us about the early days of sleep research and how he and other scientists struggled to convince the world that sleep really is important for memory.   He also talks about methodological subtleties to investigate the role of sleep on cognitive functions, the purpose of dreaming, and offline default mode processing in general, and what he sees as the most interesting future research directions of sleep. Produced by:  Eniko Simo See Professor Stickgold ..read more

Today's episode is a little bit different. We're marking the end of our first season by roping in the rest of the NaPS lab to answer listeners' sleep-related questions. Thanks to everyone who sent questions in! List of questions: Why do we use the term ‘sleeping like a baby’ when babies don’t, in fact, sleep? - From Jaime Jenkins How do hormones affect sleep? - From Beth Lee Why do some people talk in their sleep? – From Christopher Reynolds Can meditation before bed help you have deeper sleep? - From Lauren Finaldi Why do we need to cycle through different sleep states multiple times p ..read more

In this episode, we talk to Professor Björn Rasch about the pioneering of a process called Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR). TMR is a tool which can be used to selectively consolidate learnt material during sleep by pairing it with sensory stimuli such as odours or sounds during learning.  This process can be used to manipulate memories during sleep and improve memory consolidation. We also discuss how TMR can interfere with consolidation and consider the pros and cons of this technique as a tool for memory manipulation. We then go on to discuss some of Björn's other work, including h ..read more