Biology subjects

Moyano, M. D.

Publications and source records attributed to Moyano, M. D..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

TARGETED MEMORY REACTIVATION DURING NON-RAPID EYE MOVEMENT SLEEP STRENGTHENS CONSOLIDATED DECLARATIVE MEMORIES

Targeted memory reactivation (TMR) during sleep can benefit recently acquired memories, but whether it can also influence memories after an initial period of consolidation remains unclear. Here, we tested whether auditory reactivation during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep could strengthen declarative memories learned 24 h earlier. Twenty-six healthy young adults learned 30 sound word associations and returned the following day for a 90 min nap. During NREM sleep, participants in the Reactivation group received incomplete reminders consisting of the learned sound followed by the first syllable of the associated word, whereas the No-Reactivation group slept under the same conditions without memory related cues. Participants who received reminders showed significantly less forgetting, despite comparable training performance and sleep macroarchitecture. Across NREM sleep, reactivation was associated with greater slow oscillation and delta power, more slow oscillations and fast spindles, and greater slow oscillation spindle cooccurrence. The memory benefit remained significant after adjusting for NREM physiological measures and in sensitivity analyses restricted to overlapping physiological ranges between groups. Cue locked analyses revealed significant responses in the slow oscillation, delta, theta, and fast-spindle ranges, but the magnitude of these responses was not associated with memory change. These findings show that TMR during NREM sleep can benefit declarative memories after a 24 h consolidation interval and suggest that its effects extend beyond the immediate post-learning sleep period.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Modern Times: Longitudinal Study of Toba/Qom Communities Reveals Delay and Shortening of Sleep in Real-Time Across Electrification

While artificial light and digital technologies are widely assumed to delay and curtail sleep, direct, longitudinal evidence documenting these changes is remarkably scarce. From 2012 to 2024, we conducted a longitudinal study of native Toba/Qom communities in northern Argentina, including rural groups newly introduced to electricity and semi-urban groups with earlier access to electricity. Using linear mixed-effects models on a dataset of over 12,000 actigraphically recorded sleep events from 156 participants at different times, we observed striking shifts in sleep dynamics. Remarkably, both groups showed delays of up to 1.4 hours in sleep timing, and participants from rural communities lost a full hour of sleep within just a decade. These changes occurred across a period that included, first, the introduction of electricity to rural communities after 2016, and, in more recent years, the spread of the internet and smartphone use among the Toba/Qom. Our models reveal that these events alone cannot fully explain the observed shifts in sleep timing, suggesting that broader processes of modernization and acculturation, beyond electric light and digital devices alone, may be driving sleep changes. The rapid transformations observed in these communities mirror, within a single decade, the likely trajectory of human sleep across the 20th and early 21st centuries, underscoring the complex ways modern environments reshape sleep behavior.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2021

NON-LINEAR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO INTERFERENCES IN DECLARATIVE MEMORY FORMATION

After encoding, memories go through a labile state followed by a stabilization process known as consolidation. Once consolidated they can enter a new labile state after the presentation of a reminder of the original memory, followed by a period of restabilization (reconsolidation). During these periods of lability the memory traces can be modified. Currently, there are studies that show a rapid stabilization after 30 min, while others show that stabilization occurs after longer periods (e.g. 6 h). Here we investigate the effect of an interference treatment on declarative memory consolidation, comparing distinct time intervals after acquisition. On day 1, participants learned a list of non-syllable pairs (List 1). Immediately after, 30 min, 3 h or 8 h later, they received an interference list (List 2) that acted as an amnesic agent. On day 2 (48 h after training) participants had to recall List 1 first, followed by List 2. We found that the List 1 memory was susceptible to interference when the List 2 was administered immediately or 3 h after learning; however, shortly after acquisition (e.g. 30 min) the List 1 memory becomes transiently protected against interference. We propose the possibility that this rapid memory protection could be induced by a fast and transient neocortical integration (where the memory is transiently protected) becoming partially independent from the hippocampus followed by a hippocampal re-engagement where the memory becomes susceptible to interferences again. Our results open a discussion about the contribution of molecular and systemic aspects to memory consolidation.

neuroscience↗