REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences

“In contrast, the failure of such adrenergic reduction during REM sleep has been described in anxiety disorders, indexed by persistent high-frequency electroencephalographic (EEG) activity (>30Hz) [7–10]; a candidate factor contributing to hyper-arousal and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [3, 11–13].”

“Analysis focused a priori on prefrontal EEG activity, based on this region’s dense adrenergic innervation [22, 23] and established role in emotion regulation [24, 25].”

“Moreover, and consonant with the proposed function of top-down regulation [13, 15–21], these overnight reductions in amygdala activity were additionally associated with changes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functional connectivity.”

“The consequential impact of such altered central nervous system processing on peripheral nervous system reactivity has potentially important implications, especially considering their respective efferent—afferent interactions known to supporting symbiotic emotional homeostasis [31].”

“Moreover, and consonant with the proposed function of top-down regulation [13, 15–21], these overnight reductions in amygdala activity were additionally associated with changes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functional connectivity.”

“Clinical evidence suggests a potentially causal interaction between sleep and affective brain function; nearly all mood disorders display co-occurring sleep abnormalities, commonly involving rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep [1–4].”

“Guided by recent neurobiological models [3, 5], the current study focused on the sleepdependent differences in emotion reactivity within the central nervous system (specifically the brain).”

“Moreover, and consonant with the proposed function of top-down regulation [13, 15–21], these overnight reductions in amygdala activity were additionally associated with changes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functional connectivity.”

“Moreover, and consonant with the proposed function of top-down regulation [13, 15–21], these overnight reductions in amygdala activity were additionally associated with changes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functional connectivity.”

“Analysis focused on prefrontal EEG activity, based on this region’s dense adrenergic innervation [22, 23] and established role in emotion regulation [24, 25].”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Analysis focused on prefrontal EEG activity, based on this region’s dense adrenergic innervation [22, 23] and established role in emotion regulation [24, 25].”

“Indeed, the current findings offer a putative neurobiological explanation for the recent pharmacological treatment success involving nighttime suppression of adrenergic activity in PTSD, restoring REM sleep features and improving clinical symptomatology [12, 44, 45].”

“Alternatively, or in addition, such findings may be explained by the recognized benefit of REM on emotional memory consolidation [3, 26–28], associated with theta EEG activity [29, 30], thereby decreasing post-sleep stimulus novelty and hence emotion reactivity.”

“Alternatively, or in addition, such findings may be explained by the recognized benefit of REM on emotional memory consolidation [3, 26–28], associated with theta EEG activity [29, 30], thereby decreasing postsleep stimulus novelty and hence emotion reactivity.”

“Clinical evidence suggests a potentially causal interaction between sleep and affective brain function; nearly all mood disorders display co-occurring sleep abnormalities, commonly involving rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep [1–4].”

“In contrast, the failure of such adrenergic reduction during REM sleep has been described in anxiety disorders, indexed by persistent high-frequency electroencephalographic (EEG) activity (>30Hz) [7–10]; a candidate factor contributing to hyper-arousal and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [3, 11–13].”

“Taken together, these findings describe an overnight de-potentiation of neural (amygdala) and behavioral (subjective) responsivity to previously encountered affective stimuli [3, 5, 6].”

“Alternatively, or in addition, such findings may be explained by the recognized benefit of REM on emotional memory consolidation [3, 26–28], associated with theta EEG activity [29, 30], thereby decreasing postsleep stimulus novelty and hence emotion reactivity.”

“In contrast, the failure of such adrenergic reduction during REM sleep has been described in anxiety disorders, indexed by persistent high-frequency electroencephalographic (EEG) activity (>30Hz) [7–10]; a candidate factor contributing to hyper-arousal and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [3, 11–13].”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Analysis focused on prefrontal EEG activity, based on this region’s dense adrenergic innervation [22, 23] and established role in emotion regulation [24, 25].”

“Moreover, and consonant with the proposed function of top-down regulation [13, 15–21], these overnight reductions in amygdala activity were additionally associated with changes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functional connectivity.”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Moreover, and consonant with the proposed function of top-down regulation [13, 15–21], these overnight reductions in amygdala activity were additionally associated with changes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functional connectivity.”

“Alternatively, or in addition, such findings may be explained by the recognized benefit of REM on emotional memory consolidation [3, 26–28], associated with theta EEG activity [29, 30], thereby decreasing postsleep stimulus novelty and hence emotion reactivity.”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Alternatively, or in addition, such findings may be explained by the recognized benefit of REM on emotional memory consolidation [3, 26–28], associated with theta EEG activity [29, 30], thereby decreasing postsleep stimulus novelty and hence emotion reactivity.”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“gamma EEG activity during REM (Figure 4a–d), such that those with the lowest levels of REM-gamma (indicative of lowest central adrenergic activity [7–10]) expressed the largest overnight decrease in emotion reactivity.”

“Moreover, and consonant with the proposed function of top-down regulation [13, 15–21], these overnight reductions in amygdala activity were additionally associated with changes in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functional connectivity.”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of PTSD, characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyper-arousal [36–40] and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“(B) Corresponding scatterplot of the amygdala-gamma power relationship shown in (A), with R noted only for descriptive purposes [46, 47], with lower”

“In contrast, the failure of such adrenergic reduction during REM sleep has been described in anxiety disorders, indexed by persistent high-frequency electroencephalographic (EEG) activity (>30Hz) [7–10]; a candidate factor contributing to hyper-arousal and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [3, 11–13].”

“Clinical evidence suggests a potentially causal interaction between sleep and affective brain function; nearly all mood disorders display co-occurring sleep abnormalities, commonly involving rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep [1–4].”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Of special relevance in this context is the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by REM abnormalities [11, 32–35], hyperarousal [36–40], and exaggerated amygdala reactivity [41–43].”

“Indeed, the current findings offer a putative neurobiological explanation for the recent pharmacological treatment success involving nighttime suppression of adrenergic activity in PTSD, restoring REM sleep features and improving clinical symptomatology [12, 44, 45].”

“gamma EEG activity during REM (Figure 4a–d), such that those with the lowest levels of REM-gamma (indicative of lowest central adrenergic activity [7–10]) expressed the largest overnight decrease in emotion reactivity.”

“Modified from (van der Helm et al 2011).”

“The association between REM sleep variables and affect regulation was evidenced also by neuroimaging studies (van der Helm et al., 2011; Nofzinger et al., 2004).”

“Some evidence suggests a sleep-dependent decrease in both subjective emotional arousal and autonomic response to negative stimuli compared to an equally long period of wake in humans (Gujar et al., 2011; van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“The amygdala, a structure known in the processing of emotions, has been suggested to be very active during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which explains the co-occurrence of mood disorders with sleep abnormalities [21].”

“…far, only a few studies directly addressed the issue of sleepassociated changes in the affective responses to aversive emotional and neutral pictures with rather inconsistent findings (Baran, PaceSchott, Ericson, & Spencer, 2012; Van der Helm et al., 2011; Wagner, Fischer, & Born, 2002).”

“Furthermore, high-frequency electroencephalographic activity during REM sleep, an index of fragmented REM sleep, hinders resolution of emotional distress (10).”

“In the study of van der Helm et al. (2011) participants viewed and rated the emotional intensity of affective pictures, whichwere shown for a second time during recall.”

“A recent study reported that greater rapid eye movement sleep, which is higher in better sleepers, predicted decreased subjective emotional responsiveness to negative stimuli and a decrease in amygdala reactivity as well as an increase in amygdalamPFC connectivity over consecutive scans (62).”

“Conversely, a night of sleep palliatively resets limbic responsivity to emotional events (van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“A recent fMRI study (van der Helm et al., 2011) indicated that overnight decreases in amygdala functional responses to an emotionally arousing task are related to REM-associated EEG activity.”

“In contrast, adequate sleep has been consistently associated with improved emotional well-being, specifically related to REM sleep amount and physiology (Gujar et al., 2011a; van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“Consistent with this theory, sleep primarily seems to be beneficial for hippocampus-dependent memories (101, 448).”

“Some previous studies showed strengthening of emotional memories after consolidation during sleep.(13,18,35,38) On the basis of these results, it has been argued that sleep posttrauma might consolidate and further strengthen negative traumatic memories and that symptoms of sleep disturbance frequently seen in trauma s…”

“These findings were correlated with diminished gamma EEG activity during REMS (van der Helm et al., 2011), a marker of adrenergic activity (Cape and Jones, 1998; Hajos et al., 2003; Walling et al., 2011).”

“…of sleep significantly amplifies amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli (Yoo et al., 2007; Goldstein et al., 2013), whereas the presence of sleep, and specifically REM sleep, beneficially depotentiates amygdala reactivity in response to previous emotional experiences (van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“Van der Helm and colleagues reported a correlation between a REM sleep EEG parameter and the attenuation of the emotional reaction to repeatedly viewed pictures (van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“22,23 These findings are consistent with earlier, seminal work from Cartwright and colleagues 24 indicating that REM sleep may play an important role in mood regulation.”

“…include the thalamic nuclei and limbic regions including the amygdala, areas shown to have altered activity during wake in PtsD (shin et al. 2006; van der helm et al. 2011). therefore, it might be possible that reduced REM theta activity represents weaker communication between these structures.”

“…that is currently a subject of debate, with competing theories arguing that sleep acts to protect (Baran et al., 2012; Groch et al., 2013), potentiate (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; Wagner et al., 2002) or depotentiate (van der Helm et al., 2011; Walker & van der Helm, 2009) emotional reactivity.”

“While memory consolidation takes place during both slow wave sleep (SWS; deep non-REMS) and REMS, the processing of emotional memories is thought to happen primarily during REMS (29).”

“The phasic VTA dopamine signals during REM sleep (Dahan et al., 2007) may favor an off-line replay of recent emotional memory traces during this sleep stage (Walker and Van Der Helm, 2009).”

“downregulation fails when sleep is perturbed [20, 26].”

“…the activity of this structure during REM sleep underlies the generation of the emotional content of REM sleep dreaming and contributes to the reprocessing and consolidation of emotional experiences during REM sleep (Deliens et al., 2014; Hobson and Pace-Schott, 2002; Van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“Connectivity between the amygdala and the frontal cortex also increased following sleep, but decreased across wake, suggesting a role for increased top–down cognitive control in reducing the emotional responses associated with emotional memory following sleep.(59) This hypothesis also ascribes an important role to REM…”

“More indepth, the theta (Nishida et al., 2009; Boyce et al., 2016; Sopp et al., 2018) and gamma activities (Van Der Helm et al., 2011) were identified as the EEG markers of emotional memory processing.”

“Results from both experimental and nonexperimental manipulations of sleep studies support this thesis [60,61].”

“However, van der Helm et al. (2011) showed a negative correlation between the overnight decrease in emotion reactivity (emotion regulation) and gamma activity during REM sleep.”

“REM sleep is characterized by fast, low-amplitude oscillatory activity in the θ-band (4–8 Hz) and higher frequency bands characteristic of waking (van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“Patients with porfyria, macular degeneration, retinal dystrophy, lupus erythematosus, chronic actinic dermatitis, and solar urticaria can have photosensitization reactions to light and should only receive BLT under monitoring of an ophthalmologist or dermatologist [78].”

“This observation offers a potential explanation for the frequent comorbidity of mood disorders and disturbances in sleep patterns [8].”

“During REM sleep , instead of being”

“This association is conversely restored by a full night of sleep (van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“…also play a cathartic role in emotion regulation, with REM sleep reducing the brain's reactivity to waking emotional experiences, simultaneously decreasing the intensity of previous affective experiences and diminishing subjective emotionality on the subsequent day (van der Helm et al. 2011b).”

“Although the present study only examined the subjective quality of sleep in a natural setting, experimental manipulations underscore the influence of sleep-specific neural patterns as biological markers of sleep-related emotional information processing [31, 32].”

“…work on REM dreaming as performing “emotional valence re-evaluation and adjustment” in updating and revising the amygdala-related emotions associated with memory (van der Helm et al., 2011; Genzel et al., 2015 see also Gujar et al., 2011; Goldstein and Walker, 2014; Hutchinson and Rathmore, 2015).”

“Moreover, in addition to homeostatic sleep regulation, disruption of the circadian system and selective deprivation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, two conditions particularly relevant to adolescents for whom early school start times are in large part responsible for chronic sleep loss, may further compound emotion…”

“…and physiological measures including skin conductance, heart rate, facial electromyography, neural event-related potentials, and amygdala fMRI activity (Baran et al., 2012; Cunningham et al., 2014; Groch et al., 2013; Pace-Schott et al., 2011; van der Helm et al., 2011; Werner et al., 2015).”

“…is that these activity states play a role in processing emotional information, one of the main functions attributed to REM sleep (van der Helm et al., 2011; Groch et al., 2013; Hutchison and Rathore, 2015; Tempesta et al., 2018), especially considering that experiencing emotions has…”

“We examined REM theta power because theta waves during REM sleep have been associated with emotional memory consolidation [28], a function that has been postulated to be affected in PTSD [52].”

“…covert amygdaloid reactivations, causing a strengthening of the declarative, informational content of the memory and a decrease of the emotional reactivity to this memory (Van der Helm et al., 2011; Walker & van der Helm, 2009, although see Baran et al., 2012; see Rasch & Born, 2013 for a review).”

“REM sleep is related to dissolving emotional stress (51) and balancing fear-related amygdala reactiveness (52, 53).”

“Hence, intense emotionally charged dreams such as nightmares may serve overall to decrease emotionality [38].”

“This increased connectivity was paralleled by an overall decrease in amygdala reactivity following sleep, and decreased gamma power during REM sleep was significantly associated with a decrease in subjective emotional reactivity ratings.(87)”

“One approach to targeting intrusive memories is a brief behavioral procedure, involving a memory reminder cue followed by a visual interference task (playing the computer game Tetris), delivered within the first few hours post-trauma [49]: recent proof-of-concept trials show a reduction in the number of intrusive memo…”

“A recent study illustrated emotional depotentiation over sleep (albeit independent of memory) (van der Helm et al., 2011).”

“…acquisition following SD converge with previous findings reporting an SD-associated generalized failure to habituate during fear acquisition (Peters et al., 2014), lack of decrease in negative emotional reactivity (van der Helm et al., 2011), and enhanced impulsivity (Anderson and Platten, 2011).”

“A power spectral analysis of the Stage 2 NREM sleep EEG was performed following established procedures (Kurth et al., 2010; Mander, Santhanam, Saletin, & Walker, 2011; Ringli et al., 2013; van Der Helm et al., 2011).”

“…of emotional memories not only results in the strengthening of memories (as reflected by a decrease in pleasantness ratings for negative stimuli in our study) but also in the reduction of their affective tone (Walker and van der Helm, 2009; Gujar et al., 2011; van der Helm et al., 2011).”