Publikationen

2026

• Elce, V., Bontempi, G., Scarpelli, S., Pedreschi, B., Pietrini, P., De Gennaro, L., Bellesi, M., Bernardi, G.*, Handjaras, G.* (2026). Individual traits and experiences predict the content of dreams, Communications Psychology 4, 69
• Michalak, A.*, Marzoli, D.*, Pietrogiacomi, F.*, Bergamo, D., Elce, V., Pedreschi, B., … & Bernardi, G. (2026). Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure. Plos Biology, 24(3), e3003683.
• Villa, S.*, Kleinschroth, F.*, Schönauer, M., & Kumral, D. (2026). Experience-dependent rapid structural changes in the human brain: A systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 106736.

2025

• Löwe, A.T., Petzka, M., Tzegka, M., Schuck, N.W. (2025). N2 sleep promotes the occurrence of ’aha’ moments in a perceptual insight task. PLoS Biology. 23(6): e3003185. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003185
• Bontempi, G., Capriglia, E., Bernardi, G., & Elce, V. (2025). The effects of RBD medications on dream content: A critical review of evidence. Sleep Medicine, 106878.
• Wong, W., Herzog, R., Andrade, K. C., Andrillon, T., …, Elce, V., …, & Tsuchiya, N. (2025). A dream EEG and mentation database. Nature Communications, 16(1), 7495.
• Palmieri, J., Elce, V., Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. Neuropsychologia, 218:109248.
• Elce, V., Bergamo, D., Bontempi, G., Pedreschi, B., Bellesi, M., Handjaras, G., & Bernardi, G. (2025). The individual determinants of morning dream recall. Communications Psychology, 3(1), 25.

Preprints

• Kleespies, K., Paulus, P. C., Zhu, H., Pargent, F., Jakob, M., Werle, J., Czisch, M., Boedecker, J., Gais, S., & Schönauer, M. (2025). Sleep resolves competition between explicit exemplar memory and implicit memory generalization. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.21.639581

2024

• Diester I, Bartos M, Bödecker J, Kortylewski A, Leibold C, Letzkus J, Nour MM, Schönauer M , Straw A, Valada A, Vlachos A, Brox T (2024). Internal world models in humans, animals, and AI. Neuron 21;112(16):2823. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.07.021.
• Löwe, A.T., Touzo, L., Muhle-Karbe, P.S., Saxe, A.M., Summerfield, C., Schuck, N.W. (2024). Abrupt and spontaneous strategy switches emerge in simple regularised neural networks. PLoS Computational Biology. 20(10), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012505.
• Bertolini, L., Elce, V., Michalak, A., Widhoelzl, H. S., Bernardi, G., & Weeds, J. (2024). Automatic annotation of dream report’s emotional content with large language models, Proceedings of CLPsych 2024-9th Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology.
• Palmieri J & Schönauer M (2024). Sleep research enters the real world. Nat Hum Behav; in press

Preprints

• Provias V, Schönauer M, Gais S, Albouy P, Born J, Bergmann TO, Coffey, EBJ (2024). Spatiotemporal patterns of theta-band activity during rapid-eye movement sleep: a magnetoencephalography analysis. bioRxiv; doi: 10.1101/2024.10.01.616032

2023

• Kumral, D., Matzerath, A., Leonhart, R., & Schönauer, M. (2023). Spindle-dependent memory consolidation in healthy adults: A meta-analysis. Neuropsychologia, 189, 108661.
• Schaare, H. L., Blöchl, M., Kumral, D., Uhlig, M., Lemcke, L., Valk, S. L., & Villringer, A. (2023). Associations between mental health, blood pressure and the development of hypertension. Nature communications, 14(1), 1953.
• Roüast, N. M., & Schönauer, M. (2023). Continuously changing memories: a framework for proactive and non-linear consolidation. Trends in Neurosciences, 46(1), 8-19.

Preprints

• Brodt S, Schönauer M, Seewald A, Beck J, Erb M, Scheffler K and Gais S (2023) Memory systems integration in sleep complements rapid systems consolidation in wakefulness. biorxiv; doi: 10.1101/2023.03.09.531360
• Kumral D, Palmieri J, Gais S, Schönauer M (2023). Daytime experiences shape neural activity and dream content in the sleeping brain. bioRxiv; doi: 10.1101/2023.07.29.551087

2022

• Bibian C, Irastorza-Landa N, Schönauer M, Birbaumer N, Lopez-Larraz E, Ramos-Murguialday A (2022). On the Extraction of Purely Motor EEG Neural Correlates during an Upper Limb Visuomotor Task. Cereb Cortex; 32(19): 4243-4254. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab479
• Schuck, N.W., Li, A.X., Wenke, D., Ay-Bryson, D.S., Löwe, A.T., Gaschler R, et al. (2022). Spontaneous discovery of novel task solutions in children. PLoS ONE. 17(5): e0266253. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266253

2021

• Elce, V., Handjaras, G., & Bernardi, G. (2021). The Language of Dreams: Application of Linguistics-Based Approaches for the Automated Analysis of Dream Experiences. Clocks & Sleep, 3(3), 495-514.

Preprints

• Himmer L, Bürger Z, Fresz L, Maschke J, Wagner L, Brodt S, Braun C, Schönauer M, Gais S (2021). Localizing spontaneous memory reprocessing during human sleep. bioRxiv; doi: 10.1101/2021.11.29.470230

2020

• Pöhlchen D, Pawlizki A, Gais S, Schönauer M (2020). Evidence against a large effect of sleep in protecting verbal memories from interference. J Sleep Res. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13042
• Pöhlchen, D. & Schönauer, M (2020). Sleep-dependent memory consolidation in the light of rapid neocortical plasticity. Curr Opin Behav Sci; 33: 118-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.02.001
• Kumral, D., Şansal, F., Cesnaite, E., Mahjoory, K., Al, E., Gaebler, M., … & Villringer, A. (2020). BOLD and EEG signal variability at rest differently relate to aging in the human brain. NeuroImage, 207, 116373
• Elce, V., Del Pizzo, A., Nigro, E., Frisso, G., Martiniello, L., Daniele, A., & Elce, A. (2020). Impact of Physical Activity on Cognitive Functions: A New Field for Research and Management of Cystic Fibrosis. Diagnostics, 10(7), 489.

2019

• Himmer L*, Schönauer M*, Heib D, Schabus M, Gais S (2019). Rehearsal initiates systems memory consolidation, sleep makes it last. Sci Adv; 5:eaav1695. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav1695
• Antony J, Schönauer M, Staresina B, Cairney SA (2019). Sleep spindles and memory reprocessing. Trends Neurosci; 42: 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2018.09.012

2018

• Brodt S, Gais S, Beck J, Erb M, Scheffler K, Schönauer M (2018). Fast track to the neocortex: A memory engram in posterior parietal cortex. Science; 362: 1045-1048. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau2528
• Jamalabadi J, Alizadeh S, Schönauer M, Leibold C, Gais S (2018). Multivariate classification of neuroimaging data with nested subclasses: Biased accuracy and implications for hypothesis testing. PLoS Comput Biol; 14(9): e1006486. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006486
• Brodt S, Pöhlchen D, Täumer E, Gais S, Schönauer M (2018). Incubation, not sleep, aids problem solving. Sleep; https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsy155
• Schönauer M*, Brodt S*, Pöhlchen, D, Breßmer A, Danek A, Gais S (2018). Sleep does not facilitate insight problem solving. Front Hum Neurosci; https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00072
• Schönauer, M & Pöhlchen, D(2018). Sleep spindles. Curr Biol; 28(19): R1129-R1130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.035
• Schönauer, M (2018). Sleep spindles: Timed for memory consolidation. Curr Biol; 28(11): R656-658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.03.046

2017

• Alizadeh S, Jamalabadi H, Schönauer M, Leibold C, Gais S (2017). Decoding cognitive concepts from neuroimaging data using multivariate pattern analysis. Neuroimage; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.07.058
• Schönauer M*, Alizadeh S*, Jamalabadi H, Abraham A, Pawlizki A, Gais S (2017). Decoding material-specific memory reprocessing during sleep in humans. Nat Commun; https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15404
• Pavlov YG, Gais S, Müller F, Schönauer M, Schäpers B, Born J, Kotchoubey B (2017). Night sleep in patients with Vegetative State. J Sleep Res; https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12524
• Himmer L, Gais S, Schönauer M (2017). Sleep-mediated memory consolidation depends on the level of integration at encoding. Neurobiol Learn Mem; 137: 101-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2016.11.019

2016

• Brodt S, Pöhlchen D, Flanagin V, Glasauer S, Gais S, Schönauer M (2016). Rapid and independent memory formation in the parietal cortex. Proc Nat Acad Sci; 15; 113(46): 13251-13256. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1605719113

2015

• Schönauer M, Grätsch M, Gais S (2015). Evidence for two distinct sleep-related long-term memory consolidation processes. Cortex; 63: 68-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2014.08.005

2014

• Schönauer M, Pawlizki A, Köck C, Gais S (2014). Exploring the effect of sleep and reduced interference on different forms of declarative memory. Sleep; 37: 1995-2007. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.4258
• Schönauer M, Geisler T, Gais S (2014). Strengthening procedural memories by reactivation in sleep. J Cogn Neurosci; 26: 143-53. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00471