The influence of time between learning and sleep on memory consolidation in adolescents

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ulrich Voderholzer
• Subject Area: Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Term: from 2009 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 113663269

Despite the increasing insights into the significant impact of sleep on memory consolidation it is still unclear whether memory consolidation in adolescents is modulated by the length of the time interval between the acquisition of new knowledge or skills and sleep. The proposed research project will test the hypothesis that sleep directly after learning significantly facilitates procedural and declarative memory consolidation compared to sleep after an interim waking period with limited sensory input between learning and bedtime.This is a randomised, comparison study in a parallel group design. 52 healthy post-pubertal adolescents (16-17 years, 26 females, 26 males, matched for age and gender, and stratified for IQ, motivation and morningness/ eveningness types) will be allocated to two conditions with polysomnographic monitoring: group 1 (n = 26) will complete a test battery with verbal and visual declarative tasks and a procedural skill in the afternoon, spend the remaining afternoon with standardised, supervised activities, watch a movie afterwards and go to bed; group 2 (n = 26) will watch the movie in the afternoon and complete the same test battery in the evening, immediately before going to sleep. Both groups will be retested on the following morning.Results from this research project are expected to increase our knowledge on the impact of sleep on memory formation in adolescents with the ultimate goal being a translation of this informa-tion into learning strategies for adolescents.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Dieter Riemann