Healthy aging is accompanied by decreased cognitive abilities and a parallel decline in sleep quantity and quality. Given a wealth of researc in healthy young adults and animal models illustrating a benefit of sleep on memory and other cognitive processes, our overarching objective is to understand whether changes in sleep may account for changes in cognitive abilities in healthy aging. The specific objective of this application is to probe whether learning is benefitted by sleep in healthy older adults as compared to healthy young adults. In addition to probing memory following intervals of sleep and wake, we will investigate whether the memories were restructured over sleep and the neurophysiological underpinnings of observed changes. Sleep's function on declarative and procedural learning is unique, each being associated with distinct sleep stages and physiological markers. Therefore, we will separately probe declarative and procedural learning.
In Specific Aim 1 we will examine whether procedural memories are benefitted by sleep in older adults. Preliminary data suggests an age-related decline in sleep-dependent memory consolidation for such tasks, a deficit we predict is associated with fragmentation of the critical sleep stage.
In Specific Aim 2 we will examine whether declarative memories are benefitted by sleep in healthy older adults. Preliminary data suggest that declarative memory performance of older adults is greater following sleep relative to wake, similar to young adults. We will probe whether this result reflects a reorganization of the memory and whether it is a general property of the declarative memory domain. The proposed research is innovative as it applies a novel concept to the field of cognitive aging, utilizes novels techniques (polysomnography) for this field, and seeks to shift the treatment and preventive strategies for age-related cognitive deficit to sleep targets. Moreover, the proposed work is significant in advancing our understanding of cognitive deficits in other diseases in which sleep disturbances are frequently observed by describing the scope of the sleep-cognition relationship in the control population.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed research is relevant to public health because understanding the sleep-memory relationship in healthy aging will underlie novel treatments of cognitive decline in older adults and other populations with sleep-effecting diseases. Thus, this research is well-suited to the NIH mission, seeking fundamental knowledge of sleep and memory in older adults in order to enhance health and reduce the burden of aging and disease.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AG040133-02
Application #
8531122
Study Section
Cognition and Perception Study Section (CP)
Program Officer
Mackiewicz, Miroslaw
Project Start
2012-09-01
Project End
2017-07-31
Budget Start
2013-08-01
Budget End
2014-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$304,622
Indirect Cost
$111,617
Name
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
153926712
City
Amherst
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
01003
Jones, Bethany J; Mackay, Alix; Mantua, Janna et al. (2018) The role of sleep in emotional memory processing in middle age. Neurobiol Learn Mem 155:208-215
Mantua, Janna; Spencer, Rebecca M C (2017) Exploring the nap paradox: are mid-day sleep bouts a friend or foe? Sleep Med 37:88-97
Mantua, Janna; Henry, Owen S; Garskovas, Nolan F et al. (2017) Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Chronically Impairs Sleep- and Wake-Dependent Emotional Processing. Sleep 40:
Kurdziel, Laura B F; Mantua, Janna; Spencer, Rebecca M C (2017) Novel word learning in older adults: A role for sleep? Brain Lang 167:106-113
Bottary, Ryan; Sonni, Akshata; Wright, David et al. (2016) Insufficient chunk concatenation may underlie changes in sleep-dependent consolidation of motor sequence learning in older adults. Learn Mem 23:455-9
Kurdziel, Laura B F; Spencer, Rebecca M C (2016) Consolidation of novel word learning in native English-speaking adults. Memory 24:471-81
Mantua, Janna; Baran, Bengi; Spencer, Rebecca M C (2016) Sleep benefits consolidation of visuo-motor adaptation learning in older adults. Exp Brain Res 234:587-95
Jones, Bethany J; Schultz, Kurt S; Adams, Sydney et al. (2016) Emotional bias of sleep-dependent processing shifts from negative to positive with aging. Neurobiol Aging 45:178-189
Baran, Bengi; Mantua, Janna; Spencer, Rebecca M C (2016) Age-related Changes in the Sleep-dependent Reorganization of Declarative Memories. J Cogn Neurosci 28:792-802
Mantua, Janna; Spencer, Rebecca M C (2015) The interactive effects of nocturnal sleep and daytime naps in relation to serum C-reactive protein. Sleep Med 16:1213-6

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