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PubMed2002

Interactive family learning following a cancer diagnosis.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To describe the experience of families when a member is diagnosed with cancer. DESIGN: Descriptive, qualitative study. SETTING: Patients' homes. SAMPLE: Eight adults, two to five months postdiagnosis, who were receiving radiotherapy or chemotherapy for stage I or II solid tumors and family members, including seven children between the ages of 13-18. Thirty people interviewed total. METHODS: Patients recruited from an oncology outpatient clinic and gynecologic inpatient unit of a teaching hospital interviewed on one occasion with at least two immediate family members in patients' homes. Semistructured interviews were tape-recorded and analyzed for themes and categories using the techniques of constant comparison. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Transitions from health to illness. FINDINGS: Families described a learning process in which information was gathered, interpreted, and shared. Families learned together by reviewing the past, gathering and sharing information, and sharing their experiences of living with someone undergoing treatment for cancer. By revealing their own personal perspectives, patients taught their families about their illness experiences and what constituted effective support. CONCLUSIONS: Interactive family learning is a mode of learning and a form of support in which the whole family may participate early in the process of learning to live with cancer. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Nurses can facilitate patient and family learning by considering the interactive manner in which families acquire information. By acknowledging how past experiences with cancer inform the present, nurses can help families identify beliefs influencing the illness experience. By including families in teaching sessions; facilitating communication between patients, families, physicians, and nurses; and providing take-home learning materials, nurses can facilitate shared information gathering. Nurses should acknowledge the value of learning about illness by experience, accept patients and families as experts, and encourage revelation of patients' and families' perspectives of the illness to enhance feedback on support and coping.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Health care provision for people with a learning disability. Record-linkage study of epidemiology and factors contributing to hospital care uptake.

BACKGROUND: We know little about how people with a learning disability access secondary health care. AIMS: To describe the epidemiology of learning disability, the influence of deprivation on prevalence and the pattern of secondary care uptake, including the effect of institutionalisation. METHOD: A record-linkage study of secondary care contacts of 434,000 people between 1991 and 1997. A population with learning disability was identified; their secondary care contact was calculated and compared with the general population's. RESULTS: The distribution of people with a learning disability (n = 1595) correlated significantly with deprivation. The presence of a learning disability hospital significantly affected care uptake. Place of residence also affected acute admission to the learning disability hospital. Former institution residents generated 212 admissions per 1000 patients; community patients generated 18 per 1000. The admission rate with any psychiatric diagnosis to any setting was 26.3 per 1000 people with a learning disability; 16.5% of such patients had a dual diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Health provision for people with a learning disability is affected by institutional provision.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Effectiveness of an adult-learning, self-directed model compared with traditional lecture-based teaching methods in out-of-hospital training.

UNLABELLED: Until recently, the U.S. Army Combat Medic School used a traditional teaching model with heavy emphasis on large group lectures. Skills were taught separately with minimal links to didactics. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether the adult learning model improves student learning in terms of cognitive performance and perception of proficiency in military medic training. METHODS: The study population was two sequential groups of randomly selected junior, enlisted, active duty soldiers with no prior formal emergency medical training who were enrolled in an experimental model of a U.S. Army Combat Medic School. The control population was a similar group of students enrolled in the traditional curriculum. Instructors were drawn from the same pool, with experimental group instructors receiving two weeks of training in adult-learning strategies. The study population was enrolled in the experimental program that emphasized the principles of adult learning, including small-group interactive approach, self-directed study, multimedia didactics, and intensive integrated practice of psychomotor skills. Instructors and students were also surveyed at the end of the course as to their confidence in performing four critical skills. The survey instrument used a five-point scale ranging from "strongly disagree" through "undecided" to "strongly agree." Proficiency for this survey was defined as the sum of the top two ratings of "agree" or "strongly agree" to questions regarding the particular skill. Both experimental and control programs lasted ten weeks and covered the same academic content and nonacademic (e.g., physical fitness) requirements, and the two groups of students had similar duty days. Evaluations included performance on internal and National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) written examinations and other measures of academic and nonacademic performance. RESULTS: One hundred fifty students (experimental n = 81, control n = 69) were enrolled in 1999-2000. The scores for internal course grade, NREMT written score, and NREMT written pass rate were, respectively, 86.3, 71.6, and 63% for the experimental group; and 85.8, 69.6, and 49% for the control group. The p-value was </= 0.05 for the comparison between internal course grade and NREMT written score, but p > 0.05 for the comparison between NREMT written pass rates. Students in both the adult-learning and traditional groups rated themselves high in proficiency, whereas instructors in the traditional group were generally much more modest in their rating of student proficiency than instructors of the adult-learning program. CONCLUSIONS: In this study setting, an adult-learning model offers only a modest improvement in cognitive evaluation scores over traditional teaching when measured at the end of the course. Additionally, students in the traditional teaching model assess themselves as proficient more frequently than instructors, whereas instructor and student perception of proficiency more closely matched in the adult-learning model.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Learning and memory in Lymnaea are negatively altered by acute low-level concentrations of hydrogen sulphide.

Hydrogen sulphide (H(2)S) is a common industrial pollutant as well as an endogenous neural transmitter/neural modulator. Experiments were performed on the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis to determine the acute effects of low-level exposure to H(2)S (50-100 micromol l(-1)) on aerial respiratory behaviour, associative learning, and its subsequent consolidation into long-term memory (LTM). A 3-neuron network whose sufficiency and necessity have been demonstrated drives aerial respiratory behaviour in Lymnaea. In the presence of 100 micromol l(-1) H(2)S the number of bouts of aerial respiration and the total breathing time were significantly increased compared to the control hypoxic situation, but were equivalent to those observed in snails that had been subjected to a 'more intense hypoxic challenge'. In addition, at a concentration of 100 micromol l(-1) H(2)S neither associative learning nor long-term memory (LTM) were observed. However, snails subjected to a 'more intense hypoxic challenge' still had the capacity to learn and form LTM. These snails, in fact, showed statistically the best learning and memory performance of any group. While learning and memory were observed at 50 and 75 micromol l(-1) H(2)S, respectively, they were statistically poorer than the learning and memory exhibited by snails in the standard hypoxia condition. Hence the ability to learn and form memory was compromised by H(2)S. Thus an invertebrate model system with a well-defined neural network can be used to study of the effects of H(2)S on the processes of learning and memory.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Facilitating the implementation of lifelong learning in nursing.

Lifelong learning in nursing comprises an essential conceptual shift from the notion of the registered nurse (RN) being merely a competent health service incumbent to one who engages in professional learning continuously throughout their career in order to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. Since the 1990s, lifelong learning has appeared as a rhetoric within nursing literature in the UK, with a seemingly general assumption that there is a shared understanding and acceptance of the concept among all nurses. A literature review on lifelong learning shows that the concept comprises a number of components. However, because the literature does not seem to address the application of the concept to nursing, a study that aimed to ascertain RNs' perceptions of lifelong learning, and their views on the mechanisms that would enable effective implementation of the concept, was conducted. This qualitative study entailed individual interviews with 26 RNs and two focus groups with another 12 RNs. The findings suggest that there are positive perceptions as well as certain reservations about lifelong learning among RNs, and that structural mechanisms could be more firmly and equitably anchored. Additionally, profession-based and informal personal networks tend to play a key role in encouraging and supporting learning. The results of the study are configured into a conceptual framework for the implementation of lifelong learning in nursing and possibly in other health professions.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed2000

Implicit and explicit dialogue structuring in virtual learning groups.

BACKGROUND: The promotion of virtual learning groups by instructional means is gaining importance with the spread of telematic learning. In virtual learning groups, students discuss certain learning materials or cooperate in problem solving by means of computer-mediated communication. Due to the specific features of electronic communication, supportive means appear to be necessary for such learning situations. AIMS: The investigation focuses on testing two different forms of dialogue structuring in virtual learning groups, in which students discuss a given subject matter together and clarify problems in understanding by means of synchronous computer-mediated communication. SAMPLE: Forty-five students from various disciplines at the University of Tübingen, except students of physics, participated in the investigation. METHOD: An experiment was conducted involving three-person groups in a telematic setting with two different kinds of dialogue structuring: implicit structuring induced group discussion on the subject matter by working on key questions in a preceding learning phase, whilst explicit structuring provided additional rules for discussion. These rules prompted group members to argue and aimed at directing them to equal participation. RESULTS: Compared to a control group, both implicit and explicit structuring showed greater orientation on the subject matter and showed less off-task talk. Moreover, explicit structuring led to more coherence in subject matter discussion with regard to the completion of topics. However, post-test performance showed no significant difference in knowledge over that of the control group. CONCLUSION: The results of the investigation show that dialogue structuring can be an adequate pedagogical approach for virtual learning groups.

Humans↗
PubMed2000

Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work.

BACKGROUND: This paper explores the conceptual and methodological problems arising from several empirical investigations of professional education and learning in the workplace. AIMS: 1. To clarify the multiple meanings accorded to terms such as 'non-formal learning', 'implicit learning' and 'tacit knowledge', their theoretical assumptions and the range of phenomena to which they refer. 2. To discuss their implications for professional practice. METHOD: A largely theoretical analysis of issues and phenomena arising from empirical investigations. ANALYSIS: The author's typology of non-formal learning distinguishes between implicit learning, reactive on-the-spot learning and deliberative learning. The significance of the last is commonly overemphasized. The problematic nature of tacit knowledge is discussed with respect to both detecting it and representing it. Three types of tacit knowledge are discussed: tacit understanding of people and situations, routinized actions and the tacit rules that underpin intuitive decision-making. They come together when professional performance involves sequences of routinized action punctuated by rapid intuitive decisions based on tacit understanding of the situation. Four types of process are involved--reading the situation, making decisions, overt activity and metacognition--and three modes of cognition--intuitive, analytic and deliberative. The balance between these modes depends on time, experience and complexity. Where rapid action dominates, periods of deliberation are needed to maintain critical control. Finally the role of both formal and informal social knowledge is discussed; and it is argued that situated learning often leads not to local conformity but to greater individual variation as people's careers take them through a series of different contexts. This abstract necessarily simplifies a more complex analysis in the paper itself.

Cognition↗
PubMed2001

The psychological assessment of learning potential.

BACKGROUND: The paper considers the construct of learning potential (or dynamic assessment) and its use in the psychoeducational assessment of children with learning difficulties. AIMS: The principal research aim was to examine the extent to which learning potential (dynamic) assessment can predict which children with severe learning difficulties will gain most from a structured programme of cognitive intervention. SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 30 children (mean age 9 years) based in a school for children with moderate/severe learning difficulties. METHODS: Half of the children were assessed both before and after the delivery of a 15-month cognitive intervention programme undertaken by the first author. The other half took part in the assessments but continued with their usual classroom programme. Assessments included the use of both dynamic and static measures. On the basis of the assessments, students were divided into high and low potential groups and comparison of gains after the intervention was undertaken. RESULTS: The measurement of learning potential appeared to predict subsequent performance in some, but not all, areas. Those who were most likely to make gains were those children deemed as 'high potential' who also received the cognitive intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The value of learning potential assessment was not clearly demonstrated. The implications of the results are explored and, in particular, the authors warn of the dangers of drawing upon the results of learning potential measures in an inappropriate fashion. (school) psychologists, the complexity of the measures, ongoing debates validity and applicability and the pressures from resource managers for clearcut psychometric results have tended to deter all but the practitioner.

Child↗
PubMed2002

Measuring self-reported studying and learning for university students: linking attitudes and behaviours on the same scale.

BACKGROUND: The relationships between self-reported Approaches to Studying and Self-concept, Self-capability and Studying and Learning Behaviour are usually studied by measuring the variables separately (using factor analysis and Cronbach Alphas) and then using various correlation techniques (such as multiple regression and path analysis). This procedure has measurement problems and is called into question. AIMS: To create a single scale of Studying and Learning using a model with subsets of ordered stem-items based on a Deep Approach, a Surface Approach and a Strategic Approach, integrated with three self-reported aspects (an Ideal Self-view, a Capability Self-view and a Studying and Learning Behaviour Self-view). SAMPLES: The stem-item sample was 33, all answered in three aspects, that produced an effective item sample of 99. The person convenience sample was 431 students in education (1(st) to 4(th) year) at an Australian university during 2000. METHOD: The latest Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Model Computer Program (Andrich, Lyne, Sheridan, & Luo, 2000) was used to analyse the data and create a single scale of Studying and Learning. RESULTS: Altogether 77 items fitted a Rasch Measurement Model and formed a scale in which the 'difficulties' of the items were ordered from 'easy' to 'hard' and the student measures of Studying and Learning were ordered from 'low' to 'high'. The proportion of observed student variance considered true was 0.96. The response categories were answered consistently and logically and the results supported many, but not all, the conceptualised ordering of the subscales. Students found it 'easy' to report a high Ideal Self-view, 'much harder' to report a high Capability Self-view, and 'harder still' to report a high Studying and Learning Behaviour for the stem-items, in accordance with the model, where items fit the measurement model. The Ideal Self-view Surface Approach items provided the most non-fit to the model. CONCLUSION: This method was highly successful in producing a single scale of Studying and Learning from self-reported Self-concepts, Self-capabilities, and Studying and Learning Behaviours, based on a Deep Approach, a Surface Approach and a Strategic Approach.

Achievement↗
PubMed2005

Optimizing the number of steps in learning tasks for complex skills.

BACKGROUND: Carrying out whole tasks is often too difficult for novice learners attempting to acquire complex skills. The common solution is to split up the tasks into a number of smaller steps. The number of steps must be optimized for efficient and effective learning. AIM: The aim of the study is to investigate the relation between the number of steps provided to learners and the quality of their learning of complex skills. It is hypothesized that students receiving an optimized number of steps will learn better than those receiving either the whole task in only one step or those receiving a large number of steps. SAMPLE: Participants were 35 sophomore law students studying at Dutch universities, mean age=22.8 years (SD=3.5), 63% were female. METHOD: Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 computer-delivered versions of a multimedia programme on how to prepare and carry out a law plea. The versions differed only in the number of learning steps provided. Videotaped plea-performance results were determined, various related learning measures were acquired and all computer actions were logged and analyzed. RESULTS: Participants exposed to an intermediate (i.e. optimized) number of steps outperformed all others on the compulsory learning task. No differences in performance on a transfer task were found. A high number of steps proved to be less efficient for carrying out the learning task. CONCLUSIONS: An intermediate number of steps is the most effective, proving that the number of steps can be optimized for improving learning.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

The relationship between epistemological beliefs, implicit theories of intelligence, and self-regulated learning among Norwegian postsecondary students.

BACKGROUND: More empirical work is needed to examine the dimensionality of personal epistemology and relations between those dimensions and motivational and strategic components of self-regulated learning. In particular, there is great need to investigate personal epistemology and its relation to self-regulated learning across cultures and academic contexts. Because the demarcation between personal epistemology and implicit theories of intelligence has been questioned, dimensions of personal epistemology should also be studied in relation to implicit theories of intelligence. AIMS: The primary aim was to examine the dimensionality of personal epistemology and the relation between those dimensions and implicit theories of intelligence in the cultural context of Norwegian postsecondary education. A secondary aim was to examine the relative contribution of epistemological beliefs and theories of intelligence to motivational and strategic components of self-regulated learning in different academic contexts within that culture. SAMPLES: The first sample included 178 business administration students in a traditional transmission-oriented instructional context; the second, 108 student teachers in an innovative pedagogical context. METHODS: The dimensionality of the Schommer Epistemological Questionnaire was examined through factor analyses, and the resulting dimensions were examined in relation to implicit theories of intelligence. We performed multiple regression analyses, separately for the two academic contexts, to try to predict motivational (i.e. self-efficacy beliefs, mastery goal orientation, and interest) and strategic (i.e. self-regulatory strategy use) components of self-regulated learning with epistemological beliefs and implicit theories of intelligence. RESULTS: Considerable cross-cultural generalizability was found for the dimensionality of personal epistemology. Moreover, the dimensions of personal epistemology seemed to represent constructs separate from the construct of implicit theories of intelligence. Differences in the predictability of the epistemological dimensions were found for the two samples. For the student teachers, belief about knowledge construction and modification was a better predictor of self-regulated learning. For the business administration students, belief about the certainty of knowledge played a more important role in self-regulated learning. CONCLUSIONS: Epistemological beliefs predict self-regulated learning among Norwegian postsecondary students and play more important roles than implicit theories of intelligence. Relations between epistemological beliefs and self-regulated learning may vary with academic context.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Self-managed learning groups in higher education: students' perceptions of process and outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Self-managed learning groups are increasingly used in higher education. There is a need for more systematic investigation of university students' perceptions of the processes and outcomes of this learning method. AIMS: This study aimed to identify the domains of process issues that students perceive as relevant to their participation in self-managed learning groups, and how these processes are perceived to influence group outcomes. SAMPLE: Participants were undergraduate psychology students who were members of self-managed learning groups. METHOD: The first study employed qualitative methods (namely, students' written accounts, interviews, and observation) to study learning groups (N = 180 students) and identify the process domains. In the second study, first and second year students (N = 207) used a questionnaire (based on the domains identified in Study 1) to evaluate the processes and outcomes of their learning groups. RESULTS: Analysis of qualitative data (Study 1) identified seven process domains: task focus, staff support, process learning, environmental fit, managing differences, equity and responsibility, and collaboration and cooperation. Factor analysis of students' responses (Study 2) identified an underlying structure of two process factors: personal responsibility and collaborative climate, and staff support and environmental fit. Both process factors were associated with the self-reported satisfaction and productivity of this group of students. CONCLUSIONS: University students' perceptions of the processes of self-managed learning groups have a clear structure. These process factors are associated with perceived group outcomes in systematic and theoretically consistent ways.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Sequence learning by action, observation and action observation.

The serial reaction time (SRT) task was used to compare learning of a complex sequence by action (participants responded to sequential stimuli), by observation (participants watched but did not respond to sequential stimuli), and by action-observation (participants watched an expert model responding to sequential stimuli). Each of these groups was compared with an untrained control group. Experiment 1 indicated that both observation and action-observation were sufficient to support learning of a 12-item second-order conditional (SOC) sequence. Experiment 2 confirmed these findings, and showed that, as indexed by reaction time (RT), the extent of learning by observation and by action-observation was comparable to that of action-based learning. Using a recognition test, Experiment 2 and 3 also provided evidence that, whereas learning by stimulus observation was explicit, learning by action-observation was implicit. These findings are consistent with a connection between motor systems and implicit learning, but do not support the hypothesis that overt action is necessary for implicit learning.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Implicit and explicit learning in young adults with mental retardation.

We examined intelligence-related differences in explicit and implicit learning using an artificial grammar paradigm. Young adults with and without mental retardation completed a sequence-learning and identification task. For some participants, sequences were constructed following an artificial grammar; for others, sequences were random. Explicit learning was determined by ability to learn and later identify random sequences. Implicit learning was determined by the tendency to incorrectly identify new grammatical sequences as seen before, relative to new nongrammatical sequences. Participants with mental retardation did more poorly than participants without mental retardation on explicit learning but just as well on implicit learning. Results suggest that learning of complex materials, when accomplished through implicit processing, is functionally equivalent in individuals with and without mental retardation.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Learning-induced improvement in encoding and decoding of specific movement directions by neurons in the primary motor cortex.

Many recent studies describe learning-related changes in sensory and motor areas, but few have directly probed for improvement in neuronal coding after learning. We used information theory to analyze single-cell activity from the primary motor cortex of monkeys, before and after learning a local rotational visuomotor task. We show that after learning, neurons in the primary motor cortex conveyed more information about the direction of movement and did so with relation to their directional sensitivity. Similar to recent findings in sensory systems, this specific improvement in encoding is correlated with an increase in the slope of the neurons' tuning curve. We further demonstrate that the improved information after learning enables a more accurate reconstruction of movement direction from neuronal populations. Our results suggest that similar mechanisms govern learning in sensory and motor areas and provide further evidence for a tight relationship between the locality of learning and the properties of neurons; namely, cells only show plasticity if their preferred direction is near the training one. The results also suggest that simple learning tasks can enhance the performance of brain-machine interfaces.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Societal learning in epidemics: intervention effectiveness during the 2003 SARS outbreak in Singapore.

BACKGROUND: Rapid response to outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases is impeded by uncertain diagnoses and delayed communication. Understanding the effect of inefficient response is a potentially important contribution of epidemic theory. To develop this understanding we studied societal learning during emerging outbreaks wherein patient removal accelerates as information is gathered and disseminated. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We developed an extension of a standard outbreak model, the simple stochastic epidemic, which accounts for societal learning. We obtained expressions for the expected outbreak size and the distribution of epidemic duration. We found that rapid learning noticeably affects the final outbreak size even when learning exhibits diminishing returns (relaxation). As an example, we estimated the learning rate for the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Singapore. Evidence for relaxation during the first eight weeks of the outbreak was inconclusive. We estimated that if societal learning had occurred at half the actual rate, the expected final size of the outbreak would have reached nearly 800 cases, more than three times the observed number of infections. By contrast, the expected outbreak size for societal learning twice as effective was 116 cases. CONCLUSION: These results show that the rate of societal learning can greatly affect the final size of disease outbreaks, justifying investment in early warning systems and attentiveness to disease outbreak by both government authorities and the public. We submit that the burden of emerging infections, including the risk of a global pandemic, could be efficiently reduced by improving procedures for rapid detection of outbreaks, alerting public health officials, and aggressively educating the public at the start of an outbreak.

Communicable Diseases, Emerging↗
PubMed2004

Motor skill learning depends on protein synthesis in motor cortex after training.

The role of protein synthesis in memory consolidation is well established for hippocampus-dependent learning and synaptic plasticity. Whether protein synthesis is required for motor skill learning is unknown. We hypothesized that skill learning is interrupted by protein synthesis inhibition (PSI). We intended to test whether local protein synthesis in motor cortex or cerebellum is required during skill acquisition and consolidation. Anisomycin (ANI; 100 microg/microl in 1 microl of PBS) injected into motor cortex, posterior parietal cortex, or cerebellum produced 84.0 +/- 1.44% (mean +/- SEM), 85.9 +/- 2.31%, and 87.3 +/- 0.17% of PSI 60 min after administration, respectively. In motor cortex, protein synthesis was still reduced at 24 hr (72.0 +/- 4.68% PSI) but normalized at 48 hr after a second injection given 24 hr after the first. To test for the effects of PSI on learning of a skilled reaching task, ANI was injected into motor cortex contralateral to the trained limb or into ipsilateral cerebellum immediately after daily training sessions 1 and 2. Two control groups received motor cortex injections of vehicle or ANI injections into contralateral parietal cortex. Control and cerebellar animals showed a sigmoid learning curve, which plateaued after day 4. PSI in motor cortex significantly reduced learning during days 1-4. Thereafter, when protein synthesis normalized, learning was reinitiated. ANI injections into motor cortex did not induce a motor deficit, because animals injected during the performance plateau did not deteriorate. This demonstrates that motor skill learning depends on de novo synthesis of proteins in motor cortex after training.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Elevated sleep spindle density after learning or after retrieval in rats.

Non-rapid eye movement sleep has been strongly implicated in consolidation of both declarative and procedural memory in humans. Elevated sleep-spindle density in slow-wave sleep after learning has been shown recently in humans. It has been proposed that sleep spindles, 12-15 Hz oscillations superimposed on slow waves (<1 Hz), in concert with high-frequency hippocampal sharp waves/ripples, promote neural plasticity underlying remote memory formation. The present study reports the first indication of learning-associated increase in spindle density in the rat, providing an animal model to study the role of brain oscillations in memory consolidation during sleep. An odor-reward association task, analogous in many respects to human paired-associate learning, is rapidly learned and leads to robust memory in rats. Rats learned the task over 10 massed trials within a single session, and EEG was monitored for 3 h after learning. Learning-induced increase in spindle density is reliably reproduced in rats in two different learning situations, differing primarily in the behavioral component of the task. This increase in spindle density is also present after reactivation of remote memory and in situations when memory update is required; it is not observed after noncontingent exposure to reward and training context. The latter results substantially extend findings in humans. The magnitude of increase (approximately 25%) and the time window of maximal effect (approximately 1 h after sleep onset) were remarkably similar to human data, making this a valid rodent model to study network interactions through the use of simultaneous unit recordings and local field potentials during postlearning sleep.

Action Potentials↗