Peters Kevin R, Ray Laura, Smith Valerie, Smith Carlyle
Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada.
J Sleep Res. 2008 Mar;17(1):23-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00634.x.
The purpose of this study was to compare the changes that occur in sleep architecture following the acquisition of a simple motor learning task in young and older adults. Subjects included 14 young (range = 17-24 years) and 14 older (range = 62-79 years) adults, all of whom were in good health. Using in-home recording systems, sleep architecture (sleep stages and the density of Stage 2 sleep spindles) was examined before and after learning the pursuit rotor. To control for possible age differences in baseline motor performance and spindle density, both absolute and relative (percent change) measures were examined. Both groups improved significantly on the pursuit rotor task at Retest (1 week later); however, the magnitude of absolute improvement was larger in the young group than in the older group. There was no group difference when a relative measure of improvement (percent increase across sessions) was used. The density of Stage 2 sleep spindles increased significantly following task Acquisition in the young group but not in the older group. These age differences failed to reach significance when change was measured as a percentage of baseline level of spindle density. The increase in spindle density was correlated with performance level during acquisition in the young group but not the older group. The results of the present study are largely consistent with previous studies on sleep and memory in young adults and suggest that more detailed examination of this relationship in older adults is warranted.
本研究的目的是比较年轻人和老年人在掌握一项简单运动学习任务后睡眠结构的变化。研究对象包括14名年轻人（年龄范围 = 17 - 24岁）和14名老年人（年龄范围 = 62 - 79岁），他们均身体健康。使用家庭记录系统，在学习追踪转子任务前后对睡眠结构（睡眠阶段和2期睡眠纺锤波密度）进行检测。为了控制基线运动表现和纺锤波密度可能存在的年龄差异，同时检测了绝对指标和相对指标（变化百分比）。在复测时（1周后），两组在追踪转子任务上均有显著改善；然而，年轻组的绝对改善幅度大于老年组。当使用改善的相对指标（各阶段增加的百分比）时，两组之间没有差异。年轻组在任务习得后2期睡眠纺锤波密度显著增加，而老年组没有。当将变化作为纺锤波密度基线水平的百分比来衡量时，这些年龄差异未达到显著水平。年轻组纺锤波密度的增加与习得过程中的表现水平相关，而老年组则不然。本研究结果在很大程度上与之前关于年轻人睡眠与记忆的研究一致，并表明有必要对老年人中这种关系进行更详细的研究。
