POSSIBLE MECHANISMS FOR REDUCING MEMORY CONFUSION DURING SLEEP

Confusion readily occurs in memory processes between patterns that ove rlap substantially. Possible mechanisms are considered that might oper ate in an automatic manner to reduce such confusion. One such mechanis m is the recall of patterns in a distorted way, so that they are enric hed with greater activity in distinctive elements of experienced patte rns than in overlapping elements. Selective consolidation based on suc h enriched patterns would reduce confusion in long-term recall and mig ht benefit discrimination learning. It is shown how automatic algorith ms could achieve this through a process with two phases. In the first phase, somewhat analogous to slow-wave sleep, it is necessary for the normal tendency of the nervous system to learn correlations of associa ted activity to be disabled. The second phase must occur while the cel ls most active in the first phase are relatively inexcitable. Enriched patterns would be generated during this phase through recall, which m ight be triggered by bursts of activity such as occur in rapid eye mov ement sleep. Selective consolidation would take place during the secon d phase. If such processes do occur in the nervous system, it seems li kely that they would have evolved to occur during sleep.