title: Effects of aging on slow-wave sleep dynamics and human spatial navigational memory consolidation.
abstract: The consolidation of spatial navigational memory during sleep is supported by electrophysiological and behavioral evidence. The features of sleep that mediate this ability may change with aging, as percentage of slow-wave sleep is canonically thought to decrease with age, and slow waves are thought to help orchestrate hippocampal-neocortical dialog that supports systems level consolidation. In this study, groups of younger and older subjects performed timed trials before and after polysomnographically recorded sleep on a 3D spatial maze navigational task. Although younger subjects performed better than older subjects at baseline, both groups showed similar improvement across presleep trials. However, younger subjects experienced significant improvement in maze performance during sleep that was not observed in older subjects, without differences in morning psychomotor vigilance between groups. Older subjects had sleep quality marked by decreased amount of slow-wave sleep and increased fragmentation of slow-wave sleep, resulting in decreased slow-wave activity. Across all subjects, frontal slow-wave activity was positively correlated with both overnight change in maze performance and medial prefrontal cortical volume, illuminating a potential neuroanatomical substrate for slow-wave activity changes with aging and underscoring the importance of slow-wave activity in sleep-dependent spatial navigational memory consolidation.
authors.affiliation: NYU Sleep Disorders Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.|Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Varga
authors.affiliation: NYU Sleep Disorders Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Emma L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Ducca
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Akifumi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Health, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NYU, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY.
authors.forename: Ankit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parekh
authors.affiliation: NYU Sleep Disorders Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Viachaslau
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Koushyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016.
authors.forename: Po Lai
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Yau
authors.affiliation: NYU Sleep Disorders Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.|Center for Brain Health, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NYU, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Tyler
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gumb
authors.affiliation: NYU Sleep Disorders Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Leibert
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Health, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NYU, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Margaret E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Wohlleber
authors.affiliation: NYU Sleep Disorders Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Omar E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Burschtin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Convit
authors.affiliation: NYU Sleep Disorders Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Rapoport
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Health, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NYU, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Ricardo S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Osorio
authors.affiliation: NYU Sleep Disorders Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Indu
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ayappa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D065854:Spatial Navigation / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Brain imaging; Maze; Prefrontal cortex; Psychomotor vigilance; Sleep fragmentation