Published in:
01-02-2017 | Psychiatry and Preclinical Psychiatric Studies - Review Article
Sleep-dependent memory consolidation and its implications for psychiatry
Authors:
Monique Goerke, Notger G. Müller, Stefan Cohrs
Published in:
Journal of Neural Transmission
|
Special Issue 1/2017
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Abstract
Both sleep disturbance and memory impairment are very common in psychiatric disorders. Since sleep has been shown to play a role in the process of transferring newly acquired information into long-term memory, i.e., consolidation, it is important to highlight this link in the context of psychiatric disorders. Along these lines, after providing a brief overview of healthy human sleep, current neurobiological models on sleep-dependent memory consolidation and resultant opportunities to manipulate the memory consolidation process, recent findings on sleep disturbances and sleep-dependent memory consolidation in patients with insomnia, major depression, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder are systematically reviewed. Furthermore, possible underlying neuropathologies and their implications on therapeutic strategies are discussed. This review aims at sensitizing the reader for recognizing sleep disturbances as a potential contributor to cognitive deficits in several disorders, a fact which is often overlooked up to date.