Swiss researchers have determined that we may be able to learn foreign words during slow-wave sleep.
Using sleep to learn foreign words
In a new study, scientists at the University of Bern in Switzerland used EEGs to record the brain activity of 41 volunteers while they took a nap and also while they took memory tests.
The researchers played pairs of words into headphones that the volunteers wore while they named. The words included a native-language word paired with a corresponding made-up foreign word (a “pseudoword”). For example, the native-language word for “house” was paired with the made-up word “tofer.”
When they woke up, the volunteers were tested on the associations they had learned during sleep. The testing included asking whether the object mentioned could fit inside a shoebox (e.g. Can a “tofer” fit in a shoebox?)
The test results showed that as long as the pseudoword had been presented during a slow-wave peak, the likelihood that the volunteer answered correctly were better than chance.
By observing the brain’s reactions, the researchers could see that the word retrieval was linked to activity in the hippocampus (which plays a role in learning and memory) and language regions. These areas are active when we learn while awake too.
“These brain structures appear to mediate memory formation independently of the prevailing state of consciousness,” explains Marc Züst, the study’s co-author. “[They are] unconscious during deep sleep, conscious during wakefulness.”
The study’s results were published in the journal Current Biology.
Previous study results
In the past, other studies that have looked at sleep learning have presented conflicting results, with some researchers arguing that it’s impossible to learn during sleep. These experts have argued that sleep lacks the conscious awareness needed to learn and that sleep doesn’t allow for the necessary brain chemistry and activity.
This new study seems to have flipped that argument on its head and may lead to new way to teach foreign words.
