Limitations on flexible allocation of visual short-term memory resources with multiple levels of goal-directed attentional prioritization.

Studies suggest that visual short-term memory (VSTM) is a continuous resource that can be flexibly allocated using probabilistic cues that indicate test likelihood (i.e., goal-directed attentional priority to those items).

Contributions of post-learning REM and NREM sleep to memory retrieval.

It has become clear that sleep after learning has beneficial effects on the later retrieval of newly acquired memories. The neural mechanisms underlying these effects are becoming increasingly clear as well, particularly those of non-REM sleep. However, much is still unknown about the sleep and memory relationship: the sleep state or features of sleep physiology that associate with memory performance often vary by task or experimental design, and the nature of this variability is not entirely clear.

Hyperarousal Is Associated with Socioemotional Processing in Individuals with Insomnia Symptoms and Good Sleepers.

Despite complaints of difficulties in waking socioemotional functioning by individuals with insomnia, only a few studies have investigated emotion processing performance in this group. Additionally, the role of sleep in socioemotional processing has not been investigated extensively nor using quantitative measures of sleep. Individuals with insomnia symptoms ( = 14) and healthy good sleepers ( = 15) completed two nights of at-home polysomnography, followed by an afternoon of in-lab performance testing on tasks measuring the processing of emotional facial expressions.

Sleep restriction alters reactive aggressive behavior and its relationship with sex hormones.

Few studies have experimentally manipulated sleep to study its effect on aggressive behavior. The current study examined how reactive aggression was affected by having sleep restricted to 4-hours on a single night, a level of disruption commonly experienced. Both rested and sleep-restricted participants completed the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP), a laboratory task in which participants seek to earn points, are provoked by a fictitious opponent stealing their points, and may choose to steal points in response.

Changes in EEG multiscale entropy and power-law frequency scaling during the human sleep cycle.

We explored changes in multiscale brain signal complexity and power-law scaling exponents of electroencephalogram (EEG) frequency spectra across several distinct global states of consciousness induced in the natural physiological context of the human sleep cycle. We specifically aimed to link EEG complexity to a statistically unified representation of the neural power spectrum. Further, by utilizing surrogate-based tests of nonlinearity we also examined whether any of the sleep stage-dependent changes in entropy were separable from the linear stochastic effects contained in the power spectrum.

A daytime nap enhances visual working memory performance and alters event-related delay activity.

Working memory (WM) is impaired following sleep loss and may be improved after a nap. The goal of the current study was to better understand sleep-related WM enhancement by: (1) employing a WM task that assesses the ability to hold and report visual representations as well as the fidelity of the reports on a fine scale, (2) investigating neurophysiological properties of sleep and WM capacity as potential predictors or moderators of sleep-related enhancement, and (3) exploring frontal and occipital event-related delay activity to index the neural processing of stimuli in WM. In a within-subjects design, 36 young adults (M = 20, 20 men, 16 women) completed a 300-trial, continuous-report task of visual WM following a 90-min nap opportunity and an equivalent period of wakefulness.

Sleep physiology predicts memory retention after reactivation.

Both sleep and future relevance influence memory consolidation; however, limited research has investigated their role in memory reconsolidation. We manipulated the future relevance of both stable and labile memories in need of reconsolidation. Two groups learned two blocks of syllable pairs on one evening and were told they would be tested on one of the blocks later.

Ventromedial prefrontal theta activity during rapid eye movement sleep is associated with improved decision-making on the Iowa Gambling Task.

Recent research is beginning to reveal an intricate relationship between sleep and decision-making. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a unique decision-making task that relies on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), an area that integrates and weighs previous experiences with reward and loss to select choices with the highest overall value. Recently, it has been demonstrated that a period of sleep can enhance decision-making on this task.