Evidence suggests that the brain preferentially consolidates memories during “offline” periods, in which an individual is not performing a task and their attention is otherwise undirected, including spans of quiet, resting wakefulness. Moreover, research has demonstrated that factors such as the initial encoding strength of information influence which memories receive the greatest benefit. Recent studies have begun to investigate these periods of post-learning quiet rest using EEG microstate analysis to observe the electrical dynamics of the brain during these stretches of memory consolidation, specifically finding an increase in the amount of the canonical microstate D during a post-encoding rest period. Here, we implement an exploratory analysis to probe the activity of EEG microstates during a post-encoding session of quiet rest in order to scrutinize the impact of learning on microstate dynamics and to further understand the role these microstates play in the consolidation of memories. We examined 54 subjects (41 female) as they completed a word-pair memory task designed to use repetition to vary the initial encoding strength of the word-pair memories. In this study, we were able to replicate previous research in which there was a significant increase (p < .05) in the amount of microstate D (often associated with the dorsal attention network) during post-encoding rest. This change was accompanied by a significant decrease (p < .05) in the amount of microstate C (often associated with the default mode network). We also found preliminary evidence indicating a positive relationship between the amount of microstate D and improved memory for weakly encoded memories, which merits further exploration.

有证据表明，大脑优先在“离线”期间巩固记忆，在此期间，个人没有执行任务并且他们的注意力在其他方面是无方向的，包括安静、休息清醒的跨度。此外，研究表明，信息的初始编码强度等因素会影响哪些记忆获得最大的好处。最近的研究已经开始研究这些学习后安静休息的时期，使用脑电图微状态分析来观察大脑在这些记忆巩固过程中的电动力学，特别是在编码后发现规范微状态 D 的数量增加休息期。这里，我们实施了一项探索性分析，以在安静休息的编码后会议期间探测 EEG 微状态的活动，以审查学习对微状态动力学的影响，并进一步了解这些微状态在巩固记忆中所起的作用。我们检查了 54 名受试者（41 名女性），因为他们完成了一项旨在使用重复来改变单词对记忆的初始编码强度的单词对记忆任务。在这项研究中，我们能够复制之前的研究，其中在编码后休息期间微状态 D（通常与背侧注意力网络相关）的数量显着增加 (p < .05)。这种变化伴随着微状态 C（通常与默认模式网络相关）数量的显着减少 (p < .05)。