Acute sleep deprivation and the selective consolidation of emotional memories
- Ivan Vargas1,2,
- Jessica D. Payne3,
- Alexandria Muench2,4,
- Kate R. Kuhlman5,6 and
- Nestor L. Lopez-Duran7
- 1Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
- 2Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
- 3Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
- 4Department of Psychology, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131, USA
- 5Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92612, USA
- 6Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
- 7Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- Corresponding author: ivargas{at}pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Abstract
Research suggests that sleep preferentially consolidates the negative aspects of memories at the expense of the neutral aspects. However, the mechanisms by which sleep facilitates this emotional memory trade-off remain unknown. Although active processes associated with sleep-dependent memory consolidation have been proposed to underlie this effect, this trade-off may also be modulated by non-sleep-related processes, such as the circadian factors, stress-related factors, and/or mood congruent context effects involved in sleep deprivation. We sought to examine the potential role of these factors by randomizing 39 young adults into either a total sleep deprivation condition (26 consecutive hours awake) or a sleep condition (8 h sleep opportunity). Replicating the emotional memory trade-off effect, negative objects were better remembered than neutral objects or background images. However, in spite of generally worse memory performance (for neutral and background information), sleep-deprived participants showed similar recognition rates for negative emotional memories relative to participants who were given a full night of sleep.
Footnotes
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Article is online at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.049312.119.
- Received January 8, 2019.
- Accepted April 16, 2019.
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