PROCESSING OF LEARNED INFORMATION IN PARADOXICAL SLEEP - RELEVANCE FOR MEMORY

After a short review of the post-learning paradoxical sleep (PS) depri vation effects and of the PS changes induced by learning, we present a set of electrophysiological and behavioural experiments showing that: (1) processing of relevant information is possible during PS; (2) new associations can be formed during PS; (3) previously learned informat ion can be reprocessed during PS; and (4) the effects of information p rocessed during PS can be transferred to the awake state and be expres sed in behaviour. Altogether, these results support the idea that dyna mic processes occurring during post-learning PS can contribute to the effectiveness of memory processing and facilitate memory retrieval in wakefulness.