这听起来像是每个学生的梦想——8月26日在《自然—神经科学》上发表的一项研究显示，我们即便在梦中也能够学习到全新的信息。
以色列雷霍沃特市威茨曼科学院的Anat Arzi和她的同事利用一种被称为经典型条件反射的简单认知形式，从而让55名健康的受试者在睡眠中学习气味与声音的关系。
在这项研究中，睡眠中的受试者被重复暴露在一些令人愉快的气味中，例如除臭剂或香波，以及一些令人讨厌的气味中，例如腐烂的鱼和肉。同时伴随着每一种气味，研究人员都会播放不同的声音。
研究人员指出，通常人们在闻到香味时会深呼吸，而闻到臭味时会尽量少吸气。观察发现，经过这样的条件反射训练，睡眠中的受试者也会在听到与香味相关的声音时深吸气，即使这时并没有释放香味。
令人意想不到的是，在第二天受试者清醒的状态下，给他们播放相关声音，也会出现同样的反应，而他们还不知道自己在睡觉时经受了这样的条件反射训练。
Arzi指出，睡眠时究竟能学习多复杂的东西，还需要进一步探索。她估计，这种学习能力应该超出本次试验所显示的内容。
研究人员认为，这一发现还将带来一种“睡眠疗法”，从而有助于改变一些不正常的行为，例如恐惧症。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1038/nn.3193
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Humans can learn new information during sleep
Anat Arzi, Limor Shedlesky, Mor Ben-Shaul, Khitam Nasser, Arie Oksenberg, Ilana S Hairston & Noam Sobel
During sleep, humans can strengthen previously acquired memories, but whether they can acquire entirely new information remains unknown. The nonverbal nature of the olfactory sniff response, in which pleasant odors drive stronger sniffs and unpleasant odors drive weaker sniffs, allowed us to test learning in humans during sleep. Using partial-reinforcement trace conditioning, we paired pleasant and unpleasant odors with different tones during sleep and then measured the sniff response to tones alone during the same nights' sleep and during ensuing wake. We found that sleeping subjects learned novel associations between tones and odors such that they then sniffed in response to tones alone. Moreover, these newly learned tone-induced sniffs differed according to the odor pleasantness that was previously associated with the tone during sleep. This acquired behavior persisted throughout the night and into ensuing wake, without later awareness of the learning process. Thus, humans learned new information during sleep.
