Jessica Alber1, Sergio Della Sala1, Michaela Dewar2. 1. Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychology, University of Edinburgh. 2. Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: A short wakeful rest immediately after learning boosts memory retention in amnesic patients over several minutes. Here we investigated whether a short wakeful rest could boost memory retention in amnesic patients over a much longer period. METHOD: The authors tested 15 patients with amnesia associated with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI)/mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 15 age- and-education-matched controls. All participants learned 2 prose passages, 1 followed by a 10-min wakeful rest (minimal sensory stimulation), and the other by a 10-min visual spot the difference game. Participants were given a surprise delayed recall test for both prose passages after 15-30 min and after 7 days. RESULTS: Wakeful resting boosted memory substantially in the patients over 15-30 min and 7 days: After 7 days all 15 patients retained >30% of the prose that had been learned prior to wakeful resting. In contrast, after 7 days, only 4 patients retained >30% of the prose that had been learned prior to playing the spot the difference game. CONCLUSIONS: This striking 7-day memory boost via wakeful resting is remarkable, given that amnesic patients often struggle to remember new information over just a few minutes. Our novel findings indicate that there is substantial capacity for longer-term retention in patients with amnestic MCI/mild AD, and bolster the hypothesis that wakeful resting boosts memory by protecting the compromised memory consolidation system from interfering incoming information. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.
OBJECTIVE: A short wakeful rest immediately after learning boosts memory retention in amnesicpatients over several minutes. Here we investigated whether a short wakeful rest could boost memory retention in amnesicpatients over a much longer period. METHOD: The authors tested 15 patients with amnesia associated with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI)/mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 15 age- and-education-matched controls. All participants learned 2 prose passages, 1 followed by a 10-min wakeful rest (minimal sensory stimulation), and the other by a 10-min visual spot the difference game. Participants were given a surprise delayed recall test for both prose passages after 15-30 min and after 7 days. RESULTS: Wakeful resting boosted memory substantially in the patients over 15-30 min and 7 days: After 7 days all 15 patients retained >30% of the prose that had been learned prior to wakeful resting. In contrast, after 7 days, only 4 patients retained >30% of the prose that had been learned prior to playing the spot the difference game. CONCLUSIONS: This striking 7-day memory boost via wakeful resting is remarkable, given that amnesicpatients often struggle to remember new information over just a few minutes. Our novel findings indicate that there is substantial capacity for longer-term retention in patients with amnestic MCI/mild AD, and bolster the hypothesis that wakeful resting boosts memory by protecting the compromised memory consolidation system from interfering incoming information. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.
Authors: Michael Craig; Thomas Wolbers; Mathew A Harris; Patrick Hauff; Sergio Della Sala; Michaela Dewar Journal: Neurobiol Aging Date: 2016-08-31 Impact factor: 4.673