Slow-wave sleep and REM sleep differentially contribute to memory representational transformation

Abstract Memory transforms over time, gradually becoming less idiosyncratic and more gist-like. While sleep contributes to memory transformation, how different sleep stages and EEG activity influence memory transformation is far from clear. Applying representational similarity analysis to electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, we examined memory representational transformation at both the idiosyncratic “item-level” and the generic “category-level”. Our findings revealed that after an overnight sleep, item-level neural representations for post-sleep remembered items were abolished. In contrast, category-level representations remained prominent, but they became distinctive from pre-sleep. Across participants, more rapid eye movement (REM) sleep relative to slow-wave sleep (SWS) was associated with reduced item-level neural representational strength, increased category-level representational strength, as well as the decreased item-level representational similarity between pre-sleep learning and post-sleep retrieval sessions. Moreover, the theta and beta EEG power during REM sleep, and delta power during SWS differentially supported these representational transformations. These findings suggest that post-learning REM sleep and SWS play differential roles in supporting overnight memory transformation.