Experimental design.

The experiment included 4 phases, i.e., learning, pre-sleep tests (cued recall and cued recognition), TMR during SWS, and post-sleep tests. During the learning phase, participants studied 96 word-picture pairs. During the pre-sleep tests, participants were tested on half of the pairs (tested items) via the cued recall and cued recognition tasks, while the remaining half were not tested (untested items). During TMR, spoken words from half of the tested items (blue speaker icons) and half of the untested items (orange speaker icons), along with 4 control cues (gray speaker icons), were played during the SWS of the overnight sleep. During post-sleep tests on the next morning, memory for all pairs was assessed. SWS, slow-wave sleep; TMR, targeted memory reactivation.