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Targeted Memory Reactivation
  • Human
  • Grade 9+

Study While You Sleep – Targeted Memory Reactivation

Can replaying a learned sound during slow-wave sleep affect later recall? This existing research project combines a spatial-memory task with EEG recording during a nap. Compare cued and uncued items, then evaluate the results and limits of the published study.

Devices and Accessories4Related Experiments1

About the Experiment

What Will You Learn?

What Will You Learn?

  • How to test whether cues during slow-wave sleep affect later recall.
  • The relationship between EEG oscillations during slow-wave sleep and memory consolidation.
  • How to design experiments linking brain activity to behavioral memory performance.
Background

Background

Targeted memory reactivation pairs learning with sounds and replays selected sounds during sleep. This project tests whether later recall differs for cued and uncued image locations. The published protocol takes 3–4 hours before data analysis, including an approximately 90-minute nap. For a shorter class, examine the paper’s design and results.

The published study involved adults and institutional approval. Review its full methods, participant requirements, and your institution’s requirements before planning a recording project.

Procedure

  1. Preparation:

    Preparation:

    • Install the Backyard Brains TMR app (https://apps.apple.com/mt/app/tmr-memory-test/id1467896935) on an iPad. This app asks you to learn where each image sits on a grid; every image plays its own sound effect, which later becomes the sleep cue.
  2. Memory Encoding Phase (Pre-Nap):

    Memory Encoding Phase (Pre-Nap):

    Follow on screen instructions in the app to have your subject:

    1. Study where each image sits on the grid (each one plays its own sound) until memorized.
    2. Play the matching game to reinforce learning and memory.
    3. After a few practice rounds, your subject will perform a final "pre-nap" game. This will be used to measure how much they remember after the nap.
  3. Sleep & Cue Presentation:

    Sleep & Cue Presentation:

    1. Record EEG during a 90-minute nap session and wait for slow-wave sleep: large, slow delta waves. Electrodes can be placed comfortably on the head. You will see the slow waves from almost anywhere (they are big).
    2. Once detected, play auditory cues at low volume during slow-wave sleep without waking the subject. Note: Only 50% of the sounds from the game are played (we call these cued-sounds), while the other 50% are not (uncued-sounds). This allows us to see if the sounds help memory.

    Wake the subject after 90 minutes if they don’t wake up on their own. Have them do a post-nap test to see what they remember!

Results & Analysis

Results & Analysis

For each item, compare location error before and after the nap. Then compare those changes between cued and uncued items. Keep anonymous participant and item labels when organizing repeated observations, and report exclusions. Discuss whether the results support the hypothesis, including variability and possible alternative explanations.

NGSS alignment

Performance expectations

  • MS-LS1-8 Gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.

    Sounds heard during sleep reach the brain and change what is stored as memory.

Science and engineering practices

  • 3 Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

    Learn where images sit on a grid, each with its own sound, record EEG during a nap and play half the sounds during slow-wave sleep.

  • 4 Analyzing and Interpreting Data

    Compare recall of cued and uncued pairs.

  • 5 Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

    Score memory before and after the nap.

Crosscutting concepts

  • Cause and Effect

    Cues during sleep may strengthen memories.

  • Patterns

    Slow-wave EEG marks when to cue.

Disciplinary core ideas

  • LS1.D Information Processing

    Memories are consolidated during sleep.

Backyard Brains mapping using the book's method. Not in the book.