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Research Article

Timely sleep facilitates declarative memory consolidation in infants

Sabine Seehagen, Carolin Konrad, Jane S. Herbert, and Silvia Schneider
  1. aDepartment of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44787 Bochum, Germany; and
  2. bDepartment of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom

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PNAS first published January 12, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414000112
Sabine Seehagen
aDepartment of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44787 Bochum, Germany; and
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  • For correspondence: sabine.seehagen@rub.de
Carolin Konrad
aDepartment of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44787 Bochum, Germany; and
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Jane S. Herbert
bDepartment of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom
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Silvia Schneider
aDepartment of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44787 Bochum, Germany; and
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  1. Edited by H. Craig Heller, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and accepted by the Editorial Board December 16, 2014 (received for review July 23, 2014)

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Significance

The potential benefits of infant sleep for memory processing are largely unexplored. Here we show evidence that having an extended nap (≥30 min) within 4 h of learning helps 6- and 12-month-old infants to retain their memories for new behaviors across a 4- and 24-h delay. These results suggest that infants rely on frequent naps for the formation of long-term memories.

Abstract

Human infants devote the majority of their time to sleeping. However, very little is known about the role of sleep in early memory processing. Here we test 6- and 12-mo-old infants’ declarative memory for novel actions after a 4-h [Experiment (Exp.) 1] and 24-h delay (Exp. 2). Infants in a nap condition took an extended nap (≥30 min) within 4 h after learning, whereas infants in a no-nap condition did not. A comparison with age-matched control groups revealed that after both delays, only infants who had napped after learning remembered the target actions at the test. Additionally, after the 24-h delay, memory performance of infants in the nap condition was significantly higher than that of infants in the no-nap condition. This is the first experimental evidence to our knowledge for an enhancing role of sleep in the consolidation of declarative memories in the first year of life.

  • sleep-dependent memory
  • infant development
  • daytime naps
  • deferred imitation

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: sabine.seehagen{at}rub.de.
  • Author contributions: S. Seehagen, J.S.H., and S. Schneider designed research; S. Seehagen and C.K. performed research; S. Seehagen and C.K. analyzed data; and S. Seehagen, C.K., J.S.H., and S. Schneider wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. H.C.H. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1414000112/-/DCSupplemental.

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Sleep serves memory consolidation in infants
Sabine Seehagen, Carolin Konrad, Jane S. Herbert, Silvia Schneider
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2015, 201414000; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1414000112

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Sleep serves memory consolidation in infants
Sabine Seehagen, Carolin Konrad, Jane S. Herbert, Silvia Schneider
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2015, 201414000; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1414000112
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