Processing of emotional reactivity and emotional memory over sleep

By Bengi Baran, E. Pace-Schott, Callie Ericson, Rebecca M. C. Spencer. 2012

259 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Sleep enhances memories, particularly emotional memories. As such, it has been suggested that sleep deprivation may reduce posttraumatic 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 used an incidental memory task in humans and obtained valence and arousal ratings during two sessions separated either by 12 h of daytime wake or 12 h 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 reduced over wake, the negative emotional response was relatively preserved over sleep. Moreover, protection of emotional reactivity was associated with greater time in REM sleep. Recognition accuracy, however, was not associated with REM. Thus, we provide the first evidence that sleep enhances emotional memory while preserving emotional reactivity.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Replay in Deep Learning: Current Approaches and Missing Biological Elements (2021, neutral): “REM also selectively promotes consolidation of emotional memories (Baran et al., 2012; Wagner et al., 2001).”
About sleep's role in memory. (2013, background): “Some studies indeed demonstrated that sleep preferentially consolidates emotional over neutral memories (574, 602, 861, 896, 898, 1276); however, others failed to reveal such effects (60, 168, 732, 1147, 1148).”