The Relationship Between REM Sleep and Memory Consolidation in Old Age and Effects of Cholinergic Medication
Abstract
Background Recent findings in young adults suggest that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep plays a role in procedural memory consolidation. The significance of REM sleep for memory consolidation in old age has not yet been investigated. Methods Effects of REM sleep manipulation on declarative and procedural memory consolidation were investigated in 107 healthy older adults, ages 60-82 years. Rapid eye movement sleep deprivation was achieved by REM sleep awakenings and compared with non-REM sleep awakenings. Rapid eye movement sleep augmentation was realized physiologically by REM sleep rebound and pharmacologically by administering an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor in a double-blind, placebo-controlled design. Memory performance was tested by a paired associate list and a mirror tracing task at 9:30 pm and 7:30 am with sleep intervening between 11:00 pm and 7:00 am. Results Although REM sleep deprivation led to a significant reduction in total and phasic REM sleep, memory consolidation remained unaffected. Both REM sleep augmentation groups showed a significant increase in phasic REM sleep, whereas only pharmacological cholinergic REM sleep manipulation exerted a significant positive effect on procedural memory consolidation. Conclusions Because only after cholinergic stimulation of phasic REM sleep procedural memory consolidation is improved, cholinergic activation seems to be a crucial component of REM sleep-related memory consolidation in old age.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Increasing acetylcholine availability during post-training sleep by acetylcholinesterase inhibitor enhances sleep-related benefits in a skill learning task.
“Conversely, increasing the availability of acetylcholine during post-training sleep by administration of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor enhanced sleep-related benefits in a skill learning task (570).”
From About Sleep's Role in Memory (2013) · cites this paper as [570]
REM sleep does not appear to be involved as neither experimental REM sleep deprivation nor REM sleep augmentation produced any significant performance change in aged subjects on a procedural mirror tracing task.
“REM sleep does not appear to be involved as neither experimental REM sleep deprivation nor REM sleep augmentation (i.e., the rebound after deprivation) produced any significant performance change in aged subjects on a procedural mirror tracing task (570).”
From About Sleep's Role in Memory (2013) · cites this paper as [570]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 50 · Cited by 108
- Authors
- Hornung, O. P., Regen, F., Danker-Hopfe, H., Schredl, M., & Heuser, I.
- Affiliations
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
- Central Institute of Mental Health (DE)
- Venue
- Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-03
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 750-757
- ISSN
- 0006-3223 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1982076847
- Cited by
- 108
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- REM sleep, memory consolidation, aging, older adults, REM sleep deprivation, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, cholinergic stimulation, procedural memory, declarative memory, REM sleep rebound
- MeSH terms
- Donepezil, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cholinesterase Inhibitors, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Indans, Male, Memory, Middle Aged, Piperidines, Psychomotor Performance, Sleep Deprivation, Sleep, REM
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
