Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
J Sleep Res. 2022 Dec;31(6):e13695. doi: 10.1111/jsr.13695. Epub 2022 Jul 19.
Sleep has a beneficial effect on memory consolidation. However, its role in emotional memory is currently debated. Here, we investigate the role of sleep and a similar period of wakefulness on the recognition of emotional pictures and subjective emotional reactivity. Forty participants without any major physical, neurological or psychological condition were randomly assigned to the Sleep First Group or Wake First Group. The two groups underwent the encoding phase of an emotional images task with negative and neutral pictures at either 09:00 hours (Wake First Group) or 21:00 hours (Sleep First Group). Then participants performed an immediate recognition test (T1), and two delayed tests 12 hr (T2) and 24 hr (T3) later. Perceived arousal and valence levels were collected for each picture. Sleep parameters were recorded at participants' homes with a portable device. No differences were observed at T1, whereas at T2 the Sleep First Group showed a higher memory performance than the Wake First Group. At T3, performance decreased in the Sleep First Group (who spent the previous 12 hr awake), but not in the Wake First Group (who slept during the previous 12 hr). Overall, negative images were remembered better than neutral ones. We also observed a positive association between memory performance for negative items at the immediate test and the percentage of rapid eye movement sleep the night before the encoding. Our data confirm that negative information is remembered better over time than neutral information, and that sleep benefits the retention of declarative information. However, sleep seems not to preferentially improve emotional memory, although it may affect the encoding of negative information.
睡眠对记忆巩固有有益影响。然而，其在情绪记忆中的作用目前仍存在争议。在这里，我们研究了睡眠和类似的清醒期对情绪图片识别和主观情绪反应性的作用。40 名没有任何重大身体、神经或心理疾病的参与者被随机分配到睡眠优先组或清醒优先组。两组参与者分别在上午 9 点（清醒优先组）或晚上 9 点（睡眠优先组）接受带有负性和中性图片的情绪图片任务的编码阶段。然后，参与者进行即时识别测试（T1），并在 12 小时（T2）和 24 小时（T3）后进行两次延迟测试。收集每张图片的唤醒度和效价水平。使用便携式设备在参与者家中记录睡眠参数。在 T1 时未观察到差异，而在 T2 时睡眠优先组的记忆表现优于清醒优先组。在 T3 时，睡眠优先组（前 12 小时清醒）的表现下降，但清醒优先组（前 12 小时睡眠）没有下降。总体而言，负性图片的记忆效果优于中性图片。我们还观察到即时测试中对负性项目的记忆表现与编码前一晚快速眼动睡眠的百分比之间存在正相关。我们的数据证实，随着时间的推移，负性信息比中性信息的记忆效果更好，而睡眠有助于陈述性信息的保留。然而，睡眠似乎并没有优先改善情绪记忆，尽管它可能影响负性信息的编码。
