Training on an Appetitive (Delay)-Conditioning Task Enhances Oscillatory Waves During Sleep in the Cortical and Amygdalar Network

Oscillating waves during sleep play an essential role in memory consolidation. The cortical slow wave activity (SWA) and sigma waves during NREM sleep and theta waves during REM sleep increase after a variety of memory tasks including declarative, procedural and associative learning tasks. These oscillatory waves during sleep help to promote neural dialog between circuitries, which possibly plays a causal role in memory consolidation. However, the role of sleep-associated oscillating waves in a complex appetitive-conditioning paradigm is not clear. The parietal cortex and amygdala are involved in the cognitive evaluation of the environmental stimuli, and appetitive conditioning. Here, we have studied the changes in sleep architecture and oscillatory waves during NREM and REM sleep in the parietal cortices and amygdalar-local field potential (A-LFP) after appetitive-conditioning in the rat. We observed that REM sleep increased significantly after appetitive conditioning, which significantly positively correlated with performance on the appetitive-conditioning task. Further, the cortical SWA (0.1–4.5 Hz), and sigma (12–14.25 Hz) waves during NREM sleep, theta (6–9 Hz) waves during REM sleep, the amygdalar SWA (0.1–3.75 Hz) during NREM sleep and theta (6–8.25 Hz) waves during REM sleep significantly increased after appetitive conditioning. Interestingly, the augmented oscillatory waves significantly positively correlated with the performances on the appetitive-conditioning task. Our results suggest that the augmented REM sleep after conditioning may be required for the consolidation of appetitive-conditioned memory. Further, a significant correlation between augmented power in oscillatory waves during sleep and performance suggesting that these waves may be playing a crucial role in the consolidation of appetitive-conditioned memory.