# Mechanisms underlying the role of sleep in procedural learning

> **NIH NIH F30** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2020 · $50,520

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Sleep is critically important for multiple forms of memory. Disrupted sleep, a hallmark of numerous
neuropsychiatric disorders, is associated with debilitating cognitive symptoms, including problems with learning
and memory. Furthermore, specific deficits in sleep-dependent procedural learning have been identified in
patients with depression and schizophrenia. In depressed patients this effect has been doubly dissociated from
sleep-dependent declarative learning, suggesting that distinct processes govern the role of sleep in declarative
vs procedural learning. The overall goal of this proposal is to identify mechanisms whereby sleep contributes to
the learning and maintenance of procedural memories. Although hippocampal sleep replay has been shown to
exert a functional effect on learning, it is unknown how replay alters neural encoding in order to affect behavior.
Furthermore, it remains unclear how sleep exerts its effects on non-hippocampal memory, which is thought to
include most types of motor, procedural, and perceptual memories. The songbird system offers a valuable
opportunity to study a clear form of sequential motor sleep replay in the context of a learned behavior (song)
that is both natural and highly stereotyped. Motor regions in the songbird forebrain exhibit replay of song-
associated activity patterns during sleep. Moreover, sleep leads to changes in motor encoding, and exerts
behavioral effects on song learning. We propose to study links between sleep, replay, and behavior in both
adult birds maintaining their song and juvenile birds learning to sing. In adult birds, we will use
electrophysiology, polysomnography, electromyography, and sophisticated computational methods to identify
the timing and content of normal replay events and their relationship with sleep architecture. Harnessing a well-
known property of the song system, we will evoke replay-like events to track changes in motor coding across
the night. We will then perturb auditory feedback and examine the response of sleep replay and sleep
architecture. In juvenile birds, we will experimentally control song learning and explore the role of sensory
feedback in a known sleep-dependent behavioral effect on song learning. Finally, we will use a combination of
pharmacology and electrophysiology to identify circuit mechanisms of the appearance of proto-replay, which
has been linked to the onset of sleep-dependent learning effects. The results of this work will elucidate circuit
mechanisms linking sleep replay with behavior and will clarify the role of sensory feedback in sleep-dependent
procedural learning. These insights will help pave the way for developing interventions into the many
neuropsychiatric illnesses in which sleep and learning are disrupted, and for harnessing sleep processes to
ameliorate deficits in learning.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9892032
- **Project number:** 5F30MH113298-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Sophia Canavan
- **Activity code:** F30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $50,520
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-04-01 → 2021-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9892032

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9892032, Mechanisms underlying the role of sleep in procedural learning (5F30MH113298-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9892032. Licensed CC0.

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