Significant Findings

Quality of memory and sleep declines with age. The mechanistic interactions that underly the memory function of sleep in older adults are still unknown. In my lab, older adults are defined as anyone who is above the age of 60 years old. The beneficial effect of sleep on memory relies on reactivation during NREM sleep. We target these reactivations by the process of “cueing.” While the older adult is asleep, we administer an odor to see if this activates specific memory consolidation. We are comparing our findings to those of younger adults to see if there is a significant change. So far, we have not been able to gather enough data to reveal any significant findings.