[en] Memory consolidation benefits from sleep. Besides
strengthening some memory traces, another crucial, albeit
overlooked, function of memory is also to erase irrelevant
information. Directed forgetting is an experimental approach
consisting in presenting “to be remembered” and “to be
forgotten” information, that allows selectively decreasing or
increasing the strength of individual memory traces according to
the instruction provided at learning. This paradigm was used in
combination with fMRI to determine, in Humans, what specifically
triggers at encoding sleep-dependent compared to time-dependent
consolidation. Our data indicate that relevant items which
subjects strived to memorize are consolidated during sleep to a
greater extend than items that participants did not intend to
learn. This process appears to depend on a differential
activation of the hippocampus at encoding, which acts as a
signal for the offline reprocessing of relevant memories during
post-learning sleep episodes. Centre de Recherches d