Effect of sleep on implicit learning: transfer to explicit memory?

Summary Numerous studies have looked at the influence of sleep on memory. A period of sleep compared to a period of wakefulness reduces forgetfulness, improves performance but also reorganizes memory traces, thus favoring creativity and rule extraction. These studies are based on classical models of memory and explain these observations by an interaction between implicit and explicit processes during sleep. However, classical models of memory seem limited to describe the totality of the processes of reorganization of memory traces observed after a period of sleep. In this thesis, we have tried to understand the influence of sleep on the reorganization of traces through the Act-In model, a model of memory with multiple traces in the line of embodied cognition.We have developed our research around four experimental axes. First, we wanted to verify if a period of sleep allows us to passively transform an implicit trace into an explicit one. We then wanted to study the effect of sleep on the processes of multi-component integration and inter-trace activation. According to us, sleep would allow to reinforce the integration of components within a trace and it would also allow to promote the linking of several traces, leading to the emergence of common elements. Finally, in the last axis of this research work, we were interested in the consequences of age-related nocturnal modifications on memory consolidation during sleep.