Sleep enhances memory consolidation in children
Sleep enhances memory consolidation in children
Sleep is an active state that plays an important role in the consolidation of memory. It has been found to enhance explicit memories in both adults and children. However, in contrast to adults, children do not always show a sleep-related improvement in implicit learning. The majority of research on sleep-dependent memory consolidation focuses on adults; hence, the current study examined sleep-related effects on two tasks in children. Thirty-three typically developing children aged 6–12 years took part in the study. Actigraphy was used to monitor sleep. Sleep-dependent memory consolidation was assessed using a novel non-word learning task and the Tower of Hanoi cognitive puzzle, which involves discovering an underlying rule to aid completion. Children were trained on the two tasks and retested following approximately equal retention intervals of both wake and sleep. After sleep, children showed significant improvements in performance of 14% on the non-word learning task and 25% on the Tower of Hanoi task, but no significant change in score following the wake retention interval. Improved performance on the Tower of Hanoi may have been due to children consolidating explicit aspects of the task, for example rule-learning or memory of previous sequences; thus, we propose that sleep is necessary for consolidation of explicit memory in children. Sleep quality and duration were not related to children's task performance. If such experimental sleep-related learning enhancement is generalizable to everyday life, then it is clear that sleep plays a vital role in children's educational attainment.
304-310
Ashworth, Anna
7de5ce4f-3aaf-480a-a78d-3dc1f33a1a08
Hill, Catherine M.
867cd0a0-dabc-4152-b4bf-8e9fbc0edf8d
Karmiloff-Smith, Annette
b205fed0-9a5f-4384-8c4d-5cddf8063578
Dimitriou, Dagmara
e0254a64-7764-4533-886b-93597d8ca7c9
June 2014
Ashworth, Anna
7de5ce4f-3aaf-480a-a78d-3dc1f33a1a08
Hill, Catherine M.
867cd0a0-dabc-4152-b4bf-8e9fbc0edf8d
Karmiloff-Smith, Annette
b205fed0-9a5f-4384-8c4d-5cddf8063578
Dimitriou, Dagmara
e0254a64-7764-4533-886b-93597d8ca7c9
Ashworth, Anna, Hill, Catherine M., Karmiloff-Smith, Annette and Dimitriou, Dagmara
(2014)
Sleep enhances memory consolidation in children.
Journal of Sleep Research, 23 (3), .
(doi:10.1111/jsr.12119).
Abstract
Sleep is an active state that plays an important role in the consolidation of memory. It has been found to enhance explicit memories in both adults and children. However, in contrast to adults, children do not always show a sleep-related improvement in implicit learning. The majority of research on sleep-dependent memory consolidation focuses on adults; hence, the current study examined sleep-related effects on two tasks in children. Thirty-three typically developing children aged 6–12 years took part in the study. Actigraphy was used to monitor sleep. Sleep-dependent memory consolidation was assessed using a novel non-word learning task and the Tower of Hanoi cognitive puzzle, which involves discovering an underlying rule to aid completion. Children were trained on the two tasks and retested following approximately equal retention intervals of both wake and sleep. After sleep, children showed significant improvements in performance of 14% on the non-word learning task and 25% on the Tower of Hanoi task, but no significant change in score following the wake retention interval. Improved performance on the Tower of Hanoi may have been due to children consolidating explicit aspects of the task, for example rule-learning or memory of previous sequences; thus, we propose that sleep is necessary for consolidation of explicit memory in children. Sleep quality and duration were not related to children's task performance. If such experimental sleep-related learning enhancement is generalizable to everyday life, then it is clear that sleep plays a vital role in children's educational attainment.
Text
Memory consolidation in TD children paper_Sleep enhances learning final submitted copy.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 10 November 2013
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 December 2013
Published date: June 2014
Organisations:
Clinical & Experimental Sciences
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 396262
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/396262
ISSN: 0962-1105
PURE UUID: 3c145373-4d57-4c62-8429-01fb060b85b3
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 07 Jun 2016 11:29
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:01
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Anna Ashworth
Author:
Annette Karmiloff-Smith
Author:
Dagmara Dimitriou
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics