据一项新的报告提示，在睡眠时，长期的社会偏见会减少。这项研究对最近的研究提供了进一步的支持，最近的研究显示，记忆可选择性地重新激活并在沉睡中得到加强。科学家们已知睡眠可通过复活在早期(即人在清醒时)塑造的神经元踪迹而增强记忆形成。这一过程可通过给睡眠者与早期学习有关的线索而实验性地进行刺激。现在，Xiaoqing Hu和同事扩展了这些发现以显示，这种方法不但对最近学到的信息有用，而且还会影响在孩提时形成并深植于记忆的态度。在一系列的设计用来对抗典型的种族和性别偏见的练习中，参与者被呈现不同种族男女的照片。他们学习将种族和性别与相反的特征进行关联(例如，将女性的脸与科学有关的字进行相关，黑人男子与“好”的词进行相关)。每一种类型的反偏见都与一个独特的声音进行相关。参与者接着小睡90分钟，在小睡期间，通过随机指派，一种声音被反复播放以提示并重新激活新学的相关内容。在醒后不久以及一周之后，研究人员发现，在睡眠时重新激活的训练可优先减少隐性的社会偏见(但未被重新激活的反偏见则不能)。鉴于这项研究对社会变化的意义，Feld和 Born 说，这项研究应该对睡眠时解决标靶记忆再激活的其他问题的研究有所启发，从而使标靶记忆再激活的机制得到充分的理解。

    原文链接：Unlearning implicit social biases during sleep

    原文摘要：Although people may endorse egalitarianism and tolerance, social biases can remain operative and drive harmful actions in an unconscious manner. Here, we investigated training to reduce implicit racial and gender bias. Forty participants processed counterstereotype information paired with one sound for each type of bias.Biases were reduced immediately after training. During subsequent slow-wave sleep, one sound was unobtrusively presented to each participant, repeatedly, to reactivate one type of training. Corresponding bias reductions were fortified in comparison with the social bias not externally reactivated during sleep. This advantage remained 1 week later, the magnitude of which was associated with time in slow-wave and rapid-eye-movement sleep after training. We conclude that memory reactivation during sleep enhances counterstereotype training and that maintaining a bias reduction is sleep-dependent.