Sleep-dependent memory consolidation – ENSOM

Behavioral assessment
polysomnography
Actimetry
Educational program

Mazza et al. 2016: We found that interleaving sleep between learning sessions not only reduced the amount of practice needed by half but also ensured much better long-term retention. Sleeping after learning is definitely a good strategy, but sleeping between two learning sessions is a better strategy.
Sauzeau et al., soumis: sleep-dependent memory consolidation is significantly decreased in narcoleptic patients compared to healthy children. This was associated with a reduction in slow wave sleep and spindles density.

Implement a sleep learning program in elementary schools

- Mazza, S., Gerbier, E., Gustin, M.P., Kasikci, Z., Koenig, O., Toppino, T.C., & Magnin, M. (2016). Relearn faster and retain longer: along with practice, sleep makes perfect, Psychological Science, Vol. 27(10), 1321–1330.
- Sauzeau, J.B., Rey, A., Inoncente, C., Guignard-Perret, A., Franco, P., Mazza, A. (soumis). Sleep-dependent memory consolidation in children with narcolepsy. Sleep.
- Guignard-Perret, A., Mazza, S., Sauzeau, J., Revol, O., & Franco, P. (2016). Macrostructure du sommeil des enfants à haut potentiel intellectuel (HP). Médecine Du Sommeil, 13(1), 3-4.
- Mazza, S. (2016). Dormir pour apprendre, Neurosciences et pédagogie. Les cahiers pédagogiques, n°527, février 2016.
- Rey, A.E., Sauzeau, J-B., Guignard-Perret, A., Franco, P., & Mazza, S. (2016, novembre). Episodic and procedural memory before and after sleep in precocious intellectual children. Annual Conference of the Psy- chonomic Society, Boston, United States.
- Sauzeau, J.B., Rey, A.E., C.O. Inocente, A. Guignard-Perret, P. Franco, & S. Mazza (2016, septembre). Sleep-dependent memory consolidation in narcoleptic children : Reduced performance in a visual spatial task. European Sleep Research Society (ESRS), Bologna, Italie.
- Sauzeau, JB., Guignard-Perret, A, Inocente, C., El-Khatib, H., Franco, P., Mazza, S. Sleep fragmentation may impact memory consolidation in narcoleptic children. World sleep congress, Istanbul, 1-3 november, 2015.
- Rey, A.E., Sauzeau, J.-B., Guignard-Perret, A., Franco, P., & Mazza, S. (2016, novembre). Sommeil, me´- moire et enfants a` haut potentiel intellectuel : Performances dans des ta^ches e´pisodique ou proce´durale. Congre`s de la Socie´te´ Franc¸aise de Recherche et Me´decine du Sommeil, Strasbourg, France.
- Mazza, S., Gerbier, E., Gustin, M., Koenig, O., & Magnin, M. (2015). C’est en dormant que l’on devient forgeron : effet du sommeil sur l’apprentissage répété. Médecine Du Sommeil, 12(1), 44.

Sleep exerts a dual effect on learning: on the one hand, good sleep quality allows good daytime aptitudes leading to knowledge acquisition. On the other hand, sleep after learning is necessary for knowledge consolidation. A key role of sleep has clearly been demonstrated in memory consolidation in adults. Sleep leads to strengthen memory by promoting brain plasticity. Surprisingly, sleep influence on learning stabilization has scarcely been studied during childhood and in children affected by sleep disorders. Yet, sleep disorders concern almost 30% of children and are frequently related to a worsening in academic performances. Classical neuropsychological evaluations of these children, based on daytime learning, often fail to determine cognitive profiles explaining their academic difficulties. We hypothesize that a lack of sleep-dependent consolidation could take an active part in these children’s cognitive and academic difficulties. This proposal aims at characterizing interactions between sleep, learning and memory processes that have not been studied in children of elementary school age (6-12 years). Our project will focus on 3 interrelated lines of research.
The first is to determine the impact of nocturnal diseases on nocturnal consolidation processes in children. We could speculate that their qualitative or quantitative alterations of sleep may explain their learning difficulties by altering their sleep-dependent knowledge consolidation. Our project will also aim at evaluating if the normalisation of their sleep after treatment contributes to normalize sleep-dependent consolidation processes. Sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes will be evaluated in three pathologies of sleep, with specific nocturnal impairments,: the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS), the narcolepsy, the Benign Epilepsy with Centro Temporal Spikes (BECTS).
The second ambition of this project is to understand which sleep parameters participate to memory consolidation in children. For ethical and clinical reasons, sleep in children cannot be experimentally manipulated, unlike in healthy adult subjects in which sleep deprivation procedures or split night are commonly used. The innovative idea of this proposal is to use the interindividual differences in sleep and memory observed in children with normal sleep and in children affected by sleep disorders stated above as an experimental alternative to sleep deprivation. Our goal will be to determine reliable sleep predictors for memory consolidation in children. We will investigate the interdependencies of sleep and memory by using multivariate analysis.
Finally the third ambition of the project will be to gather a consortium with the Rhône-Alpes academic inspection, school physicians, and teachers. Our aim will be to build actions, which will allow us to raise awareness of school professionals on the importance of sleep on learning consolidation and about the educational needs of children suffering from sleep disturbances. We think that school could be a powerful vector of information about the importance of sleep hygiene.
Thus our goal will be to understand the interaction between sleep, learning and memory in children in order to provide clinical, fundamental and educational outcomes.