Age, Emotional Valence, Sleep
Conditions
Keywords
Emotional Memory, Memory Consolidation, Age-Related Positivity Effect
Brief summary
Memory influences emotional well being. Research has shown that having a negative emotional bias contributes to both emotion dysregulation and depression. Conversely, reactivating positive memories has been shown to reduce stress and symptoms of depression. In young adults, sleep is widely implicated in emotional processing, including consolidation of emotional memories. Evidence suggests that aging is associated with changes in emotion, including a positive memory bias and enhanced emotional well-being. These changes have been termed the age-related positivity effect. However, the influence of sleep on these measures has not been investigated in healthy older individuals. The objective of this research is to understand the role of sleep in emotional memory consolidation and emotional well-being across adulthood. We hypothesize that sleep contributes to the age-related positivity effect in memory and affect. Our alternative hypothesis is that age-related decreases in sleep are responsible for reduced emotional memory processing over healthy aging.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALOvernight sleep
Participant sent home to sleep overnight wearing PSG.
BEHAVIORALWake
Participant sent to go about normal daily routine, instructed not to nap, drink caffeine, or engage in strenuous exercise.
Sponsors
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 80 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* 18-30 or 50-80 years of age * Have no history of a sleep disorder * Have no history of neurological disease or injury * Have no history of psychiatric illness (anxiety or mood disorder, schizophrenia, etc.) * No history of chemotherapy * Not be taking medications which effect sleep * Habitually sleep more than 6 or more hours per night * Be able to walk freely and independently * Have normal to corrected-to-normal vision
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Memory bias | 12 hr delay between encoding and recognition test | Corrected recognition of positive versus negative pictures |
Countries
United States
Contacts
Primary ContactRebecca Spencer
Outcome results
None listed