A daytime nap does not increase mnemonic discrimination ability

Abstract

Walker, 2007). It has further been found that a daytime nap increases learning ability (Mander, Santhanam, Saletin, & Walker, 2011), which indicates that the ability to encode new information decreases throughout the day, but is "restored" by a nap. A mechanistical explanation for this comes from the Synaptic Downscaling Hypothesis (Tononi & Cirelli, 2006) that stipulates that synapses are built up during learning while we are awake, and then downscaled during sleep, and especially so during slow-wave sleep (SWS). Sleep would then reduce the synaptic load in the brain, and make an organism ready for novel learning.

Comparing the effect of daytime sleep and wakefulness on mnemonic discrimination

“…Interestingly, our data appear consistent with a very recent study with a large sample investigating the effect of daytime sleep on mnemonic discrimination (Davidson, et al, 2020).…”

“…Hz) during the recovery night, suggesting a role of this specific sleep feature in the offline (i.e., during sleep) processing of mnemonic discrimination. Interestingly, a recent study has attempted to replicate Saletin et al's (2020) results, but using only a daytime nap without any previous sleep deprivation (Davidson, Jönsson, & Johansson, 2020). The authors found that about 90 min of sleep did not increase either mnemonic discrimination or general recognition performance at an immediate recognition test compared to a similar period of wakefulness.…”

“…Since lure items are categorized into five levels of similarity (from the most similar to the least similar to target items, see Stark et al, 2013), we computed the Lure Discrimination Index separately for each similarity level by subtracting the similar responses to lure items from the average probability (at the individual level) to respond -Similar‖ to the foil items (see Davidson, et al, 2020).…”

The Effect of One Night of Sleep on Mnemonic Discrimination of Emotional Information

“…As mentioned earlier, previous studies have already shown a facilitatory effect of sleep on mnemonic discrimination of neutral information [ 6 , 7 , 9 , 10 ]. This is in line with the general consensus of a key role of sleep in general memory retention [ 19 , 20 ].…”

“…Another study showed that performances at the MST task were lower after a sleep-deprived night compared to a regular night of sleep, but they were restored after a recovery 90-min nap [ 8 ]. Two studies have tested the effect of a daytime nap on mnemonic discrimination [ 9 , 10 ]. In both studies, the authors found that about 60–90 min of sleep did not facilitate mnemonic discrimination or recognition performance compared to a similar period of wakefulness.…”