Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Globally Improves Learning but Does Not Selectively Potentiate the Benefits of Targeted Memory Reactivation on Awake Memory Consolidation.

Targeted memory reactivation (TMR) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can enhance memory consolidation. It is currently unknown whether TMR reinforced by simultaneous tDCS has superior efficacy. In this study, we investigated the complementary effect of TMR and bilateral tDCS on the consolidation of emotionally neutral and negative declarative memories.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Does Not Counteract Cognitive Fatigue, but Induces Sleepiness and an Inter-Hemispheric Shift in Brain Oxygenation.

Sustained cognitive demands may result in cognitive fatigue (CF), eventually leading to decreased behavioral performance and compromised brain resources. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) would counteract the behavioral and neurophysiological effects of CF. Twenty young healthy participants were tested in a within-subject counterbalanced order across two different days.

Cognitive Fatigue, Sleep and Cortical Activity in Multiple Sclerosis Disease. A Behavioral, Polysomnographic and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Investigation.

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) disease frequently experience fatigue as their most debilitating symptom. Fatigue in MS partially refers to a cognitive component, cognitive fatigue (CF), characterized by a faster and stronger than usual development of the subjective feeling of exhaustion that follows sustained cognitive demands. The feeling of CF might result from supplementary task-related brain activity following MS-related demyelination and neurodegeneration.

Lateralized rhythmic acoustic stimulation during daytime NREM sleep enhances slow waves.

Slow wave sleep (SWS) is characterized by the predominance of delta waves and slow oscillations, reflecting the synchronized activity of large cortical neuronal populations. Amongst other functions, SWS plays a crucial role in the restorative capacity of sleep. Rhythmic acoustic stimulation (RAS) during SWS has been shown a cost-effective method to enhance slow wave activity.

REM-Enriched Naps Are Associated with Memory Consolidation for Sad Stories and Enhance Mood-Related Reactivity.

Emerging evidence suggests that emotion and affect modulate the relation between sleep and cognition. In the present study, we investigated the role of rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep in mood regulation and memory consolidation for sad stories. In a counterbalanced design, participants (n = 24) listened to either a neutral or a sad story during two sessions, spaced one week apart.

Beneficial impact of sleep extension on fasting insulin sensitivity in adults with habitual sleep restriction.

Study Objectives: A link between sleep loss and increased risk for the development of diabetes is now well recognized. The current study investigates whether sleep extension under real-life conditions is a feasible intervention with a beneficial impact on glucose metabolism in healthy adults who are chronically sleep restricted.

Design: Intervention study.

Dimensions of pure chronic fatigue: psychophysical, cognitive and biological correlates in the chronic fatigue syndrome.

Objectives: To investigate associated dimensions of fatigue regarding cognitive impairment, psychomotor performances, muscular effort power and circulating cytokine levels and their relations to symptom intensity in a sample of pure chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients without overlapping objective sleepiness or sleep disorders.

Methods: 16 CFS patients were compared to 14 matched controls. We assessed structured symptom-scales, polysomnography, multiple sleep latency tests, attention (Zazzo-Cancellation ZCT, digit-symbol-substitution DSST), psychomotor vigilance and speed (PVT, finger tapping test, FTT), dynamometer handgrip force (tonic and phasic trials) and circulating cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-1b, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF-α).

Sleep and the processing of emotions.

How emotions interact with cognitive processes has been a topic of growing interest in the last decades, as well as studies investigating the role of sleep in cognition. We review here evidence showing that sleep and emotions entertain privileged relationships. The literature indicates that exposure to stressful and emotional experiences can induce changes in the post-exposure sleep architecture, whereas emotional disturbances are likely to develop following sleep alterations.

Sleep unbinds memories from their emotional context.

Consistent evidence nowadays indicates that sleep protects declarative memory from lexical interference. However, little is known about its effect against emotional interference. In a within-subject counterbalanced design, participants learned a list of word pairs after a mood induction procedure (MIP), then slept or stayed awake during the post-learning night.