“Our results show that participants who rested quietly for 10 minutes (awake quiescence) after viewing photos of everyday items were subsequently better at discriminating these target items from visually similar lure items, relative to those who were engaged in an unrelated perceptual task for 10 minutes. This finding suggests that awake quiescence protects the fine detail of new memories, bestowing on them a higher resolution than they would otherwise have after a filled delay.
…
In summary, we provide the first evidence that rest-related consolidation protects the fine detail of new memories. This provides us with higher resolution memories and supports our ability to discriminate recently encoded memories from similar representations. Our findings also support the view that consolidation benefits from states of reduced sensory processing more generally, rather than being restricted to sleep.”
Dr. Michael Craig and Dr. Michaela Dewar
Source: Nature Scientific Reports
Via: Medical Xpress