Declarative memory in the human neocortex and the role of sleep for systems memory consolidation

Prof. Gais' main interest is in finding out how sleep helps our brain organize information. While trying to answer this question, he noticed that we first have to understand more about how the brain stores memories. This, again, required them to use new methods that allow analysing large electrophysiological and brain imaging data with regard to memory processing. Thus, his lab works mainly in these three areas: sleep and its function, tracing the memory engram, and applying machine learning to hypothesis testing.