CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 103Sleep and Wakefulness ResearchMemory Processes and InfluencesMemory and Neural Mechanisms

Sleep Loss Produces False Memories

Open access
Diekelmann, Susanne, Landolt, Hans-Peter, Lahl, Olaf, Born, Jan, Wagner, Ullrich·2008·PLoS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0003512PMC PMC2567433
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

People sometimes claim with high confidence to remember events that in fact never happened, typically due to strong semantic associations with actually encoded events. Sleep is known to provide optimal neurobiological conditions for consolidation of memories for long-term storage, whereas sleep deprivation acutely impairs retrieval of stored memories. Here, focusing on the role of sleep-related memory processes, we tested whether false memories can be created (a) as enduring memory representations due to a consolidation-associated reorganization of new memory representations during post-learning sleep and/or (b) as an acute retrieval-related phenomenon induced by sleep deprivation at memory testing. According to the Deese, Roediger, McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm, subjects learned lists of semantically associated words (e.g., "night", "dark", "coal",...), lacking the strongest common associate or theme word (here: "black"). Subjects either slept or stayed awake immediately after learning, and they were either sleep deprived or not at recognition testing 9, 33, or 44 hours after learning. Sleep deprivation at retrieval, but not sleep following learning, critically enhanced false memories of theme words. This effect was abolished by caffeine administration prior to retrieval, indicating that adenosinergic mechanisms can contribute to the generation of false memories associated with sleep loss.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0003512

Cites

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

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?

  • At the consolidation stage, false memory errors are due to retroactive interference and sleep deprivation.

    “At the consolidation stage, errors leading to false memories are due to the interference of previous memories (retroactive interferences) and sleep deprivation (Diekelmann et al., 2008; Zaragoza et al., 2011).”

    From Remembering what did not happen: the role of hypnosis in memory recall and false memories formation (2025) · cites this paper as Diekelmann et al., 2008

    The Discussion reports that sleep deprivation increased false memories when it occurred at retrieval testing, not during post-learning consolidation. The Introduction discusses possible integration with pre-existing memories during consolidation, but the paper does not identify retroactive interference as the cause of the observed errors (searched: retroactive interference). (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The effect of sleep in the DRM paradigm is less consistent when recall of the critical lure is tested with recognition rather than free recall.

    “However, the effect of sleep in the DRM paradigm was less consistent when recall of the critical lure was tested with a recognition procedure rather than by free recall (255, 296, 373; see Ref. 1159 for an overview).”

    From About Sleep's Role in Memory (2013) · cites this paper as [296]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet

References 69 · Cited by 103

Research works printed but not linked: 48

  1. [2]Loftus EF Feldman J Dashiell R 1995 The Reality of Illusory Memories. Schacter DL Memory Distortions: How Minds, Brains, and Societies Reconstruct the Past CambridgeLondon, MassachusettsEngland Harvard University Press 47 68
  2. [3]Schacter DL Norman KA Koutstaal W 1998 The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory. Annu Rev Psychol 49 289 318 9496626
  3. [4]Roediger HL III McDermott KB 1995 Creating False Memories: Remembering Words not Presented in Lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 21 803 814
  4. [5]Schacter DL 1996 Illusory memories: a cognitive neuroscience analysis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 93 13527 13533 8942967 PMC33641
  5. [6]Toglia MP Neuschatz JS Goodwin KA 1999 Recall accuracy and illusory memories: when more is less. Memory 7 233 256 10645381
  6. [7]Seamon JG Luo CR Kopecky JJ Price CA Rothschild L 2002 Are false memories more difficult to forget than accurate memories? The effect of retention interval on recall and recognition. Mem Cognit 30 1054 1064 12507370
  7. [9]Buzsaki G 1998 Memory consolidation during sleep: a neurophysiological perspective. J Sleep Res 7 Suppl 1 17 23 9682189
  8. [10]Smith C 2001 Sleep states and memory processes in humans: procedural versus declarative memory systems. Sleep Med Rev 5 491 506 12531156
  9. [12]Born J Rasch B Gais S 2006 Sleep to remember. Neuroscientist 12 410 424 16957003
  10. [13]Dudai Y 2004 The neurobiology of consolidations, or, how stable is the engram? Annu Rev Psychol 55 51 86 14744210
  11. [18]Harrison Y Horne JA 2000 The impact of sleep deprivation on decision making: a review. J Exp Psychol Appl 6 236 249 11014055
  12. [20]Horne JA 1993 Human sleep, sleep loss and behaviour. Implications for the prefrontal cortex and psychiatric disorder. Br J Psychiatry 162 413 419 8453439
  13. [21]Drummond SP Brown GG Gillin JC Stricker JL Wong EC 2000 Altered brain response to verbal learning following sleep deprivation. Nature 403 655 657 10688201
  14. [23]Deese J 1959 On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall. J Exp Psychol 58 17 22 13664879
  15. [24]Schacter DL Reiman E Curran T Yun LS Bandy D 1996 Neuroanatomical correlates of veridical and illusory recognition memory: evidence from positron emission tomography. Neuron 17 267 274 8780650
  16. [25]Snodgrass JG Corwin J 1988 Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: applications to dementia and amnesia. J Exp Psychol Gen 117 34 50 2966230
  17. [26]Dunwiddie TV Masino SA 2001 The role and regulation of adenosine in the central nervous system. Annu Rev Neurosci 24 31 55 11283304
  18. [27]Basheer R Porkka-Heiskanen T Strecker RE Thakkar MM McCarley RW 2000 Adenosine as a biological signal mediating sleepiness following prolonged wakefulness. Biol Signals Recept 9 319 327 11025338
  19. [28]Retey JV Adam M Gottselig JM Khatami R Durr R 2006 Adenosinergic mechanisms contribute to individual differences in sleep deprivation-induced changes in neurobehavioral function and brain rhythmic activity. J Neurosci 26 10472 10479 17035531 PMC6674679
  20. [29]Gardiner JM Ramponi C Richardson-Klavehn A 2002 Recognition memory and decision processes: a meta-analysis of remember, know, and guess responses. Memory 10 83 98 11798439
  21. [30]de Quervain DJ Roozendaal B Nitsch RM McGaugh JL Hock C 2000 Acute cortisone administration impairs retrieval of long-term declarative memory in humans. Nat Neurosci 3 313 314 10725918
  22. [31]Payne JD Nadel L Allen JJ Thomas KG Jacobs WJ 2002 The effects of experimentally induced stress on false recognition. Memory 10 1 6 11747571
  23. [32]Smeets T Jelicic M Merckelbach H 2006 Stress-induced cortisol responses, sex differences, and false recollections in a DRM paradigm. Biol Psychol 72 164 172 16289825
  24. [33]Pruessner JC Wolf OT Hellhammer DH Buske-Kirschbaum A von Auer K 1997 Free cortisol levels after awakening: a reliable biological marker for the assessment of adrenocortical activity. Life Sci 61 2539 2549 9416776
  25. [36]Schacter DL Slotnick SD 2004 The cognitive neuroscience of memory distortion. Neuron 44 149 160 15450167
  26. [37]Slotnick SD Schacter DL 2004 A sensory signature that distinguishes true from false memories. Nat Neurosci 7 664 672 15156146
  27. [38]Kubota Y Toichi M Shimizu M Mason RA Findling RL 2006 Prefrontal hemodynamic activity predicts false memory–a near-infrared spectroscopy study. Neuroimage 31 1783 1789 16545964
  28. [39]Rugg MD Fletcher PC Frith CD Frackowiak RS Dolan RJ 1996 Differential activation of the prefrontal cortex in successful and unsuccessful memory retrieval. Brain 119(Pt 6) 2073 2083 9010011
  29. [40]Henson RN Shallice T Dolan RJ 1999 Right prefrontal cortex and episodic memory retrieval: a functional MRI test of the monitoring hypothesis. Brain 122(Pt 7) 1367 1381 10388802
  30. [41]Dobbins IG Foley H Schacter DL Wagner AD 2002 Executive control during episodic retrieval: multiple prefrontal processes subserve source memory. Neuron 35 989 996 12372291
  31. [42]Curran T Schacter DL Johnson MK Spinks R 2001 Brain potentials reflect behavioral differences in true and false recognition. J Cogn Neurosci 13 201 216 11244546
  32. [43]Johnson MK Hashtroudi S Lindsay DS 1993 Source monitoring. Psychol Bull 114 3 28 8346328
  33. [44]Mitchell KJ Johnson MK Raye CL Greene EJ 2004 Prefrontal cortex activity associated with source monitoring in a working memory task. J Cogn Neurosci 16 921 934 15298780
  34. [46]Fisone G Borgkvist A Usiello A 2004 Caffeine as a psychomotor stimulant: mechanism of action. Cell Mol Life Sci 61 857 872 15095008 PMC11138593
  35. [47]Acquas E Tanda G Di CG 2002 Differential effects of caffeine on dopamine and acetylcholine transmission in brain areas of drug-naive and caffeine-pretreated rats. Neuropsychopharmacology 27 182 193 12093592
  36. [48]Boonstra TW Stins JF Daffertshofer A Beek PJ 2007 Effects of sleep deprivation on neural functioning: an integrative review. Cell Mol Life Sci 64 934 946 17347797 PMC2778638
  37. [50]Sarter M Givens B Bruno JP 2001 The cognitive neuroscience of sustained attention: where top-down meets bottom-up. Brain Res Brain Res Rev 35 146 160 11336780
  38. [51]Chun MM Turk-Browne NB 2007 Interactions between attention and memory. Curr Opin Neurobiol 17 177 184 17379501
  39. [52]Chee MW Tan JC Zheng H Parimal S Weissman DH 2008 Lapsing during sleep deprivation is associated with distributed changes in brain activation. J Neurosci 28 5519 5528 18495886 PMC6670628
  40. [53]Knott LM Dewhurst SA 2007 The effects of divided attention at study and test on false recognition: a comparison of DRM and categorized lists. Mem Cognit 35 1954 1965 18265611
  41. [54]Corson Y Verrier N 2007 Emotions and false memories: valence or arousal? Psychol Sci 18 208 211 17444912
  42. [55]Bonnet MH Balkin TJ Dinges DF Roehrs T Rogers NL 2005 The use of stimulants to modify performance during sleep loss: a review by the sleep deprivation and Stimulant Task Force of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Sleep 28 1163 1187 16268386
  43. [56]Wagner U Kashyap N Diekelmann S Born J 2007 The impact of post-learning sleep vs. wakefulness on recognition memory for faces with different facial expressions. Neurobiol Learn Mem 87 679 687 17336554
  44. [57]Drosopoulos S Wagner U Born J 2005 Sleep enhances explicit recollection in recognition memory. Learn Mem 12 44 51 15687230 PMC548495
  45. [58]Hu P Stylos-Allan M Walker MP 2006 Sleep facilitates consolidation of emotional declarative memory. Psychol Sci 17 891 898 17100790
  46. [59]Loftus E 2003 Our changeable memories: legal and practical implications. Nat Rev Neurosci 4 231 234 12612635
  47. [60]Stadler MA Roediger HL III McDermott KB 1999 Norms for word lists that create false memories. Mem Cognit 27 494 500 10355238
  48. [61]Schmidt C Collette F Cajochen C Peigneux P 2007 A time to think: circadian rhythms in human cognition. Cogn Neuropsychol 24 755 789 18066734

Authors
Diekelmann, S., Landolt, H.-P., Lahl, O., Born, J., & Wagner, U.
Affiliations
  • University of Lübeck (DE)
  • University of Zurich (CH)
  • Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (DE)
  • University of Geneva (CH)
Corresponding author
  • Diekelmann, Susanne
  • Wagner, Ullrich
ORCID
Venue
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2008-10-23
Volume
3
Issue
10
Pages
e3512
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0003512
PMC
PMC2567433
OpenAlex
W2008920608
Cited by
103
References
69
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 6
FWCI
2.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Funders
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB654)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Keywords
false memory, sleep deprivation, memory consolidation, DRM paradigm, semantic association, memory retrieval, caffeine, adenosine
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Caffeine, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Learning, Male, Memory Disorders, Mental Recall, Saliva, Sleep Deprivation, Stress, Psychological, Task Performance and Analysis, Young Adult

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