Role of sleep in creativity and problem solving

The reactivation of memory traces during sleep can inspire creativity. Creativity and problem solving are necessary for better quality of life. However, it is unknown how the brain creates new ideas or solve problems during sleep. We hypothesize that while we sleep, our subconscious minds continue to work on problems our conscious minds have failed to solve. We will use transitive inference paradigm, combined with live Ca2+ imaging and optogenetic manipulation of neuronal ensembles. This study will open new horizon in the physiological role of sleep in creativity and problem solving.

We manipulated the activity of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM)sleep. Optogenetic inhibition of the ACC during wakefulness did not affect inference evolution, as mice achieved high correct performance during inference tests. Conversely, mice that received optogenetic inhibition of the ACC during either NREM or REM sleep failed to infer correctly. Artificial activation of the medial entorhinal cortex neuronal terminals in ACC during REM, but not NREM, sleep resulted in correct inferential behavior.

Our findings may help in the development of novel approaches to boost cognitive performance of normal and diseased subjects.