Sleep consolidates memories for competing tasks

Sleep plays an important role in the brain’s ability to consolidate learning when two new potentially competing tasks are learned in the same day, research at the University of Chicago demonstrates.

Other studies have shown that sleep consolidates learning for a new task. The new study, which measured starlings’ ability to recognize new songs, shows that learning a second task can undermine the performance of a previously learned task. But this study is the first to show that a good night’s sleep helps the brain retain both new memories.

Starlings provide an excellent model for studying memory because of fundamental biological similarities between avian and mammalian brains, scholars wrote in the paper, “Sleep Consolidation of Interfering Auditory Memories in Starlings,” published in the current online edition of Psychological Science.

“These observations demonstrate that sleep consolidation enhances retention of interfering experiences, facilitating daytime learning and the subsequent formation of stable memories,” the authors wrote.

The paper was written by Timothy Brawn, a graduate researcher in psychology at UChicago; Howard Nusbaum, professor of psychology; and Daniel Margoliash, professor of psychology, organismal biology and anatomy. Nusbaum is a leading expert on learning, and Margoliash is a pioneer in the research of brain function and its development in birds.