Abstract:
Language is one of the most defining human capabilities, involving the coordination of brain networks that generalise the meaning of linguistic units of varying complexity. On a neural level, neocortical slow waves and thalamic spindles during sleep facilitate the reactivation of newly encoded memory traces, manifesting in distinct oscillatory activity during retrieval. However, it is currently unknown if the effect of sleep on memory extends to the generalisation of the mechanisms that subserve sentence comprehension. We address this question by analysing electroencephalogram data recorded from 36 participants during an artificial language learning task and an 8hr nocturnal sleep period. We found that a period of sleep was associated with increased alpha/beta synchronisation and improved behavioural performance. Cross-frequency coupling analyses also revealed that spindle-slow wave coupling predicted the consolidation of varying word order permutations, which was associated with distinct patterns of task-related oscillatory activity during sentence processing. Taken together, this study presents converging behavioural and neurophysiological evidence for a role of sleep in the consolidation of higher order language learning and associated oscillatory neuronal activity.
Authors:
Zachariah R Cross
Randolph F Helfrich
Mark J Kohler
Andrew W Corcoran
Scott Coussens
Lena Zou-Williams
Matthias Schlesewsky
M Gareth Gaskell
Robert T Knight
Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
Date: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.948539