Project description
The power of sleep for mental health treatment
Understanding how memory is processed during sleep has gained significant interest, yet translating these insights into effective therapies remains a challenge. In this context, the ERC-funded MemoryTracker project aims to bridge this gap by exploring how sleep enhances and reshapes memories. Using advanced neuro-scientific methods, including cutting-edge MEG scanners and machine learning, the project tracks memory replay events during sleep. This approach helps unravel how complex memories are consolidated and how disruptions, like those seen in depression, can affect the process. By linking sleep memory reprocessing to potential therapies, MemoryTracker hopes to pave the way for new treatments for mental health conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, and addiction.
Objective
The field studying the processing of memory during sleep has been gaining attention lately, leading to some significant progress in our understanding. However, the challenge now is to translate these in-sights into practical psychotherapeutic options for mental disorders that are traditionally hard to treat. Our research aims to address this gap by using innovative behavioral paradigms and advanced neuro-scientific methods to tap into the therapeutic potential of sleep.
Rather than treating clinical utility as an afterthought, we have integrated it into the core of our proposal (work package D). During sleep, memories undergo a replay process that strengthens and trans-forms them. We want to provide direct evidence of this phenomenon in humans, building on studies in rodents and humans. Our approach involves creating a reliable procedure to track memory reprocessing using a cutting-edge MEG scanner with machine learning to identify replay events during sleep. We'll also explore how complex memories unfold over several weeks and use a novel behavior-al paradigm to generalize how complex memories are consolidated. This will allow us to examine how depression can disrupt this process, offering new possibilities for therapy.
While developing these methods presents challenges and the outcomes are uncertain, we believe the potential benefits make it worthwhile. Success in our project could pave the way for future efforts to manipulate memory replay during sleep—an exciting possibility. The project provides a vital step to later establishing a closed-loop approach that both measures and responds to replay, e.g. by acoustic or electrical stimulation techniques. We hope in the end to pioneer techniques that can support therapy for prevalent mental health challenges like depression, schizophrenia, and addiction—issues that are particularly pressing in the European Union.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine psychiatry schizophrenia
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
68159 Mannheim
Germany
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