PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hanna Isotalus
AU  - Will J Carr
AU  - George G Averill
AU  - Oliver Radtke
AU  - James Selwood
AU  - Rachel Williams
AU  - Elizabeth Ford
AU  - Liz McCullagh
AU  - James McErlane
AU  - Cian O’Donnell
AU  - Claire Durant
AU  - Ullrich Bartsch
AU  - Matt W Jones
AU  - Carlos Muñoz Neira
AU  - Alfie R Wearn
AU  - John P Grogan
AU  - Elizabeth J Coulthard
TI  - Dopamine-gated memory selection during slow wave sleep
AID  - 10.1101/2020.05.23.112375
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.05.23.112375
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/25/2020.05.23.112375.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/25/2020.05.23.112375.full
AB  - The human brain selectively stores knowledge of the world to optimise future behaviour, automatically rehearsing, contextualising or discarding information to create a robust record of experiences. Storage or forgetting evolves over time, particularly during sleep. We sought to test how dopamine shaped long term memory formation before and during sleep. We administered dopamine (L-DOPA tablet) during learning, re-learning, consolidation or retrieval of word lists in two independent double-blind randomised placebo-controlled cross-over studies of healthy older adults (study 1 n = 35, study 2 n = 32). During consolidation, nocturnal dopamine accelerated forgetting for words presented once, but did not affect words presented twice from forgetting. Overnight dopamine increased total slow wave sleep duration by approximately 11%. The effect of dopamine on memory correlated with increased spindle amplitude, which was maximised near slow oscillation peaks, suggesting dopamine-dependent memory processing modulates spindles dependent on slow-oscillation phase. Pharmaceutical modification of slow wave sleep holds great promise for improving old age – potential benefits could include cognitive enhancement and Alzheimer’s prevention.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.