Promoting subjective preferences in simple economic choices during nap

  1. Sizhi Ai
  2. Yunlu Yin
  3. Yu Chen
  4. Cong Wang
  5. Yan Sun
  6. Xiangdong Tang
  7. Lin Lu
  8. Lusha Zhu  Is a corresponding author
  9. Jie Shi  Is a corresponding author
  1. Peking University, China
  2. Sichuan University, China

Abstract

Sleep is known to benefit consolidation of memories, especially those of motivational relevance. Yet it remains largely unknown the extent to which sleep influences reward-associated behavior, in particular, whether and how sleep modulates reward evaluation that critically underlies value-based decisions. Here, we show that neural processing during sleep can selectively bias preferences in simple economic choices when the sleeper is stimulated by covert, reward-associated cues. Specifically, presenting the spoken name of a familiar, valued snack item during midday nap significantly improves the preference for that item relative to items not externally cued. The cueing-specific preference enhancement is sleep-dependent and can be predicted by cue-induced neurophysiological signals at the subject and item level. Computational modeling further suggests that sleep cueing accelerates evidence accumulation for cued options during the post-sleep choice process in a manner consistent with the preference shift. These findings suggest that neurocognitive processing during sleep contributes to the fine-tuning of subjective preferences in a flexible, selective manner.

Data availability

Data and code used for data analysis are publicly available online via Open Science Framework (OSF) at (https://osf.io/9ndhy/).

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Sizhi Ai

    National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Yunlu Yin

    IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Yu Chen

    National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Cong Wang

    IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Yan Sun

    National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Xiangdong Tang

    Sleep Medicine Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Lin Lu

    National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Lusha Zhu

    IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China
    For correspondence
    lushazhu@pku.edu.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8717-6356
  9. Jie Shi

    National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University, Beijing, China
    For correspondence
    shijie@bjmu.edu.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-6567-8160

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (31671171)

  • Lusha Zhu

National Natural Science Foundation of China (31630034)

  • Lusha Zhu

National Natural Science Foundation of China (31571099)

  • Jie Shi

National Basic Research Program of China (2015CB856404)

  • Jie Shi

National Basic Research Program of China (2015CB553503)

  • Jie Shi

National Natural Science Foundation of China (81801315)

  • Sizhi Ai

The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: All participants provided written informed consent. Study procedures were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee at Peking University.

Copyright

© 2018, Ai et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.40583

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