ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2015, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (9): 1568-1578.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2015.01568

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Sleep-dependent Memory Consolidation: The Effect of Aging

GUI Wen-Jun1; LEI Xu1; YUAN Hong1; GAO Dong2; YU Jing1   

  1. (1 Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China) (2 Department of Sleep and Psychology, Daping Hospital, Research Institute of Surgery, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400042, China)
  • Received:2014-12-24 Online:2015-09-15 Published:2015-09-15
  • Contact: YU Jing, E-mail: yujingpku@gmail.com

Abstract:

Along with the aging processing, the changes of sleep and sleep-dependent memory consolidation (SDC) become prominent in older adults. Although prior research indicated that the beneficial effect of sleep on procedural memory consolidation was reduced in older adults, it is still unclear whether they also show impairments on declarative memory. In addition, compared to normal controls, individuals who have neurodegeneration disorders showed impaired SDC effect on episodic memory. Future studies need to consider using both EEG and fMRI data to explore the neural pathway of aging effects on memory through sleep and to investigate the interaction among aging, sleep and memory. Also, it is important to examine the intervention effects on older adults' memory through sleep.

Key words: sleep, aging, sleep phases, sleep-dependent memory consolidation, intervention