Age-Related Changes in Sleep-Dependent Emotional Memory

Sleep Clinical Trial

Official title:

AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN SLEEP-DEPENDENT EMOTIONAL MEMORY

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04141722
• Other study ID #: 1R56AG058685-01
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: December 11, 2018
• Est. completion date: May 31, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: October 2019
• Source: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Contact: Rebecca Spencer
• Phone: (413) 545-5987
• Email: rspencer[@]psych.umass.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 80
• Est. completion date: May 31, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: May 31, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 80 Years

Eligibility

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

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Age
• Emotional Valence
• Sleep

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Overnight sleep
Participant sent home to sleep overnight wearing PSG.
• Wake
Participant sent to go about normal daily routine, instructed not to nap, drink caffeine, or engage in strenuous exercise.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Massachusetts, Amherst	Amherst	Massachusetts

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (10)

Baran B, Pace-Schott EF, Ericson C, Spencer RM. Processing of emotional reactivity and emotional memory over sleep. J Neurosci. 2012 Jan 18;32(3):1035-42. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2532-11.2012. — View Citation

Charles ST, Mather M, Carstensen LL. Aging and emotional memory: the forgettable nature of negative images for older adults. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2003 Jun;132(2):310-24. — View Citation

Charles ST, Reynolds CA, Gatz M. Age-related differences and change in positive and negative affect over 23 years. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2001 Jan;80(1):136-51. — View Citation

Dalgleish T, Werner-Seidler A. Disruptions in autobiographical memory processing in depression and the emergence of memory therapeutics. Trends Cogn Sci. 2014 Nov;18(11):596-604. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.06.010. Epub 2014 Jul 21. Review. — View Citation

Jones BJ, Schultz KS, Adams S, Baran B, Spencer RMC. Emotional bias of sleep-dependent processing shifts from negative to positive with aging. Neurobiol Aging. 2016 Sep;45:178-189. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2016.05.019. Epub 2016 May 27. — View Citation

Leigland LA, Schulz LE, Janowsky JS. Age related changes in emotional memory. Neurobiol Aging. 2004 Sep;25(8):1117-24. — View Citation

Mather M, Carstensen LL. Aging and motivated cognition: the positivity effect in attention and memory. Trends Cogn Sci. 2005 Oct;9(10):496-502. Review. — View Citation

Mroczek DK, Kolarz CM. The effect of age on positive and negative affect: a developmental perspective on happiness. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1998 Nov;75(5):1333-49. — View Citation

Ramirez S, Liu X, MacDonald CJ, Moffa A, Zhou J, Redondo RL, Tonegawa S. Activating positive memory engrams suppresses depression-like behaviour. Nature. 2015 Jun 18;522(7556):335-9. doi: 10.1038/nature14514. — View Citation

Speer ME, Bhanji JP, Delgado MR. Savoring the past: positive memories evoke value representations in the striatum. Neuron. 2014 Nov 19;84(4):847-56. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.09.028. Epub 2014 Oct 30. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Memory bias	Corrected recognition of positive versus negative pictures	12 hr delay between encoding and recognition test