Learning and Memory During Sleep and Anesthesia

Recent studies have implicated sleep in the process of memory consolidation but the question remains open whether other altered states of consciousness can also permit memory processes to occur. One clinically important altered state of consciousness is the state of anesthesia. Of particular interest to the clinician is whether learning can occur during anesthesia. Can patients learn and remember what goes on in the operating room while anesthetized? These issues will be addressed in the present chapter. We will begin by defining learning and memory types and their cellular and network underpinnings in the brain. We will turn briefly to experiments that implicate sleep in memory consolidation and whether new learning can occur during sleep. Then we will complete the chapter with a review of experiments that illustrate that learning is drastically altered under anesthesia, although memory processing has not yet been investigated in this state.