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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Associations Between Early Childhood Sleep, Memory Function, And Brain Development Across The Nap Transition, Sanna Lokhandwala Mar 2024

Associations Between Early Childhood Sleep, Memory Function, And Brain Development Across The Nap Transition, Sanna Lokhandwala

Doctoral Dissertations

Preschool-age children often distribute their sleep across a midday nap and overnight sleep. Skipping the nap is suggested to increase the duration and depth of deep sleep (i.e., slow wave activity; SWA). Moreover, missing the midday nap has been shown to impair learning processes. This may be because children’s brains at this point in development are immature, necessitating the intervening nap period to strengthen memories before they are forgotten. Nonetheless, at some point during the preschool years, many children begin transitioning naturally out of napping. It is unclear whether the memory benefits of overnight SWA after a skipped nap depend …


Slow Wave Sleep In Naps Supports Episodic Memories In Early Childhood, Sanna Lokhandwala Apr 2021

Slow Wave Sleep In Naps Supports Episodic Memories In Early Childhood, Sanna Lokhandwala

Masters Theses

Naps have been shown to benefit declarative memories in early childhood. This benefit has been associated with sleep spindles during the nap. However, whether young children’s naps and their accompanying physiology benefit other forms of declarative learning is unknown. Using a novel storybook task, we found performance was better following a nap compared to performance following an equivalent interval spent awake. Moreover, performance was better the following day if a nap followed learning. Further, change in post-nap performance was positively associated to the amount of time spent in slow wave sleep. This suggests that slow wave sleep in naps may …


Assessing The Long-Term Sequelae Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Janna Mantua Mar 2018

Assessing The Long-Term Sequelae Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Janna Mantua

Doctoral Dissertations

A mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also known as a concussion, is defined as an injury that results in an alteration of consciousness or mental status. Previous studies have shown mTBI populations experience a number of chronic (> 1 year) symptoms, such as sleep disturbances (e.g., sleep stage alterations), mood alterations (e.g., depressive symptoms), and cognitive alterations (e.g., poor concentration). The three chapters of this dissertation sought to explore these long-term sequelae and the possible interrelations between them. In the first experiment, sleep-dependent memory consolidation of neutral stimuli was probed in a chronic mTBI sample and a control, uninjured sample. …


The Role Of Napping On Memory Consolidation In Preschool Children, Laura Kurdziel Nov 2014

The Role Of Napping On Memory Consolidation In Preschool Children, Laura Kurdziel

Doctoral Dissertations

Nocturnal sleep has been shown to benefit memory in adults and children. During the preschool age range (~3-5 years), the distribution of sleep across the 24-hour period changes dramatically. Children transition from biphasic sleep patterns (a nap in addition to overnight sleep) to a monophasic sleep pattern (only overnight sleep). In addition, early childhood is a time of neuronal plasticity and pronounced acquisition of new information. This dissertation sought to examine the relationship between daytime napping and memory consolidation in preschool-aged children during this transitional time. Children were taught either a declarative or an emotional task in the morning, and …


Sleep Disturbances In Alzheimer's Disease And Caregiver Mood: A Diary Study, Anna Maria Katarina Akerstedt Feb 2012

Sleep Disturbances In Alzheimer's Disease And Caregiver Mood: A Diary Study, Anna Maria Katarina Akerstedt

Open Access Dissertations

Sleep disturbances are common in persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) (Hart et al., 2003) and pose a great strain on their family caregivers (Hope, Keene, Gedling, Fairburn, & Jacoby, 1998) including their emotional functioning (Schulz & Martire, 2004). The current study is the first to examine the impact of daily sleep and mood in persons with AD on their caregiver's sleep and emotional functioning. The study examined sleep and mood across eight days in 40 family caregivers of persons with AD. It was hypothesized that poor sleep in the person with AD person would have a negative impact on caregiver …


Processing Of Emotional Reactivity And Emotional Memory Over Sleep, Bengi Baran, Edward F. Pace-Schott, Callie Ericson, Rebecca M. C. Spencer Jan 2012

Processing Of Emotional Reactivity And Emotional Memory Over Sleep, Bengi Baran, Edward F. Pace-Schott, Callie Ericson, Rebecca M. C. Spencer

Rebecca M. C. Spencer

Sleep enhances memories, particularly emotional memories. As such, it has been suggested that sleep deprivation may reduce post-traumatic stress disorder. This presumes that emotional memory consolidation is paralleled by a reduction in emotional reactivity, an association that has not yet been examined. In the present experiment, we utilized an incidental memory task in humans and obtained valence and arousal ratings during two sessions separated either by 12 hours of daytime wake or 12 hours including overnight sleep. Recognition accuracy was greater following sleep relative to wake for both negative and neutral pictures. While emotional reactivity to negative pictures was greatly …