We spend 1/3 rd of our life asleep, and the brain is very busy during this time. Memories are spontaneously reinstated during sleep, and this reinstatement has been linked to consolidation, or strengthening of the memories involved. This can lead to integration of new memories with each other and with existing knowledge, providing a basis for creativity. Intriguingly, scientists can control this reactivation, and thus selectively strengthen and weaken specifically targeted memories using a method called Targeted Memory Consolidation (TMR). In future, this may lead to a sci-fi like scenario in which we can actively manipulate people’s memories, see my TEDx talk on sleep engineering for an easy intro. You can also check out our Sleep Science Podcast. However, much remains to be understood about what neural replays in sleep is actually doing. We aim to understand how replay impacts on neuroplasticity and interactions between the brain structures such as the quick learning hippocampus and slow learning neocortex. Furthermore, we aim to understand how TMR during different sleep stages (e.g. REM/NREM) or during different phases of the signature oscillations of sleep (e.g. slow oscillations, sleep spindles, and theta) impact on memory. This This PhD will investigate some of these questions – however we are open to several different methods of investigation as outlined below.
We would particularly encourage applicants from three different backgrounds, as this project can be approached in 3 different ways.
Computer science or engineering students with a good background in classifiers, EEG analysis or other timeseries signal processing would be encouraged to work on detection of memory replay using EEG data. As this is a challenging problem we aim to explore and combine techniques from areas such as time series analysis (dynamic time warping), neuroimaging (representation similarity analysis) and deep learning (LSTM, convolutional NN). An initial paper we’ve written on this is here.
Candidates with a strong background in Psychology or Cognitive Neuroscience with or without an EEG or signal processing background will be able to study this system by running behavioural/EEG experiments and applying Targeted Memory Reactivation during sleep. The bulk of our work to date has used these methods, so please see our lab publications.
The Neuroscience and Psychology of Sleep (Naps) lab is a thriving community of computer scientists and sleep researchers studying all aspects of how sleep impacts on cognition (see our nascent web pages.)
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