Emotional memories are processed during sleep; however, the specific mechanisms are unclear. Understanding such mechanisms may provide critical insight into preventing and treating mood disorders. Consolidation of neutral memories is associated with the coupling of NREM sleep slow oscillations (SOs) and sleep spindles (SPs). Whether SO–SP coupling is likewise involved in emotional memory processing is unknown. Furthermore, there is an age-related emotional valence bias such that sleep consolidates and preserves reactivity to negative but not positive emotional memories in young adults and positive but not negative emotional memories in older adults. If SO–SP coupling contributes to the effect of sleep on emotional memory, then it may selectively support negative memory in young adults and positive memory in older adults. To address these questions, we examined whether emotional memory recognition and overnight change in emotional reactivity were associated with the strength of SO–SP coupling in young (n = 22) and older (n = 32) adults. In younger adults, coupling strength predicted negative but not positive emotional memory performance after sleep. In contrast, coupling strength predicted positive but not negative emotional memory performance after sleep in older adults. Coupling strength was not associated with emotional reactivity in either age group. Our findings suggest that SO–SP coupling may play a mechanistic role in sleep-dependent consolidation of emotional memories.

中文翻译：

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睡眠期间的情绪记忆巩固与年轻人和老年人的慢振荡-纺锤体耦合强度有关

情绪记忆是在睡眠期间处理的；然而，具体机制尚不清楚。了解这些机制可能为预防和治疗情绪障碍提供重要的见解。中性记忆的巩固与 NREM 睡眠慢振荡 (SO) 和睡眠纺锤波 (SP) 的耦合有关。SO-SP 耦合是否同样参与情绪记忆处理尚不清楚。此外，存在与年龄相关的情绪效价偏差，因此睡眠会巩固并保留对年轻人的消极情绪记忆的反应，但不会保留积极的情绪记忆，而在老年人中，睡眠会巩固和保留对积极情绪记忆的反应，但不会保留对消极情绪记忆的反应。如果SO-SP耦合有助于睡眠对情绪记忆的影响，那么它可能选择性地支持年轻人的消极记忆和老年人的积极记忆。为了解决这些问题，我们研究了年轻人 ( n = 22) 和老年人 ( n = 32) 的情绪记忆识别和情绪反应的夜间变化是否与 SO-SP 耦合强度相关。在年轻人中，耦合强度可以预测睡眠后消极的情绪记忆表现，但不能预测积极的情绪记忆表现。相比之下，耦合强度可以预测老年人睡眠后的积极情绪记忆表现，但不能预测消极情绪记忆表现。在这两个年龄组中，耦合强度与情绪反应均无关。我们的研究结果表明，SO-SP 耦合可能在睡眠依赖性情绪记忆巩固中发挥机制作用。