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Michael Scullin, Ph.D. - Baylor University . Waco, TX, US

Michael Scullin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience | Baylor University

Waco, TX, UNITED STATES

Professor Scullin’s research investigates how sleep physiology impacts memory, education, health, and aging.

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Biography

Dr. Scullin completed his doctorate in the Behavior, Brain, and Cognition program at Washington University in St. Louis and then a post-doctoral fellowship in the Neurology and Sleep Medicine program at Emory University School of Medicine. He is involved in service committees for the Sleep Research Society and the American Psychological Association and he co-founded the APA journal Translational Issues in Psychological Science.

Dr. Scullin’s research investigates how sleep physiology impacts memory, education, health, and aging. He is further interested in how we use memory to fulfill our daily intentions (a special kind of memory called “prospective" memory) as well as how lifestyle choices including exercise, diet, and medication adherence affect cognitive and neural functioning.

Areas of Expertise (8)

Neuroscience

Sleep Physiology

Cognitive Neuroscience

Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition

Psychology

Sleep's Effect on Aging

Sleep's Effect on Memory

Sleep's Effect on Health

Accomplishments (5)

Rising Star Award, Association for Psychological Science

2017

Brenda A. Milner Award, American Psychological Association

2015

Early Career Development Award, Sleep Research Society Foundation

2015

Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, National Institute on Aging

2012

APA/Psi Chi Edwin B. Newman Graduate Research Award (professional)

Awards for graduate research, applying psychology to education and training. Professor Scullin received this award in 2011.

Education (2)

Washington University, St. Louis: Ph.D. 2011

Furman University: B.S. 2007

Media Appearances (41)

Song Stuck in Your Head? What Earworms Reveal About Health

WebMD  online

2023-03-31

Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor, was quoted regarding earworms, a bit of music you can’t shake from your brain.

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Baylor sleep expert warns of cost of daylight saving time

Waco Tribune-Herald  online

2023-03-10

VIDEO: Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor, discusses the negative effect of spring daylight saving change on humans and why it can take up to a week to adjust to the change.

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Can Listening to Pop Music Help You Fall Asleep?

Verywell Health  online

2023-01-31

Baylor sleep researcher Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, says one of the main reasons music might help someone fall asleep is fairly simple: it can help you relax. However, if you’re experiencing insomnia, Scullin said listening to music shouldn’t necessarily be the first trick you try. Instead, it’s best to give stimulus control practices a shot.

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Spotify Sleep Playlists Include Some Surprisingly Upbeat Music

Forbes+  online

2023-01-21

This article about music playlists to help people fall asleep cites a 2021 study by Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., who found that musical “earworms” made people wake up at night from having a song stuck in their head. Scullin said, “Almost everyone thought music improves their sleep, but we found those who listened to more music slept worse.”

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Air Pollution Can Lead To Poor Sleep: 4 Other Things That Can Cause Sleep Deprivation

The Health Site  online

2023-01-07

Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, is quoted in this article about reasons people have trouble getting a good night's sleep. Scullin’s research found that listening to music near bedtime can lead to earworms (a song or tune stuck in your head), which can cause difficulty falling asleep and nighttime awakenings.

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What to Do When You Can't Sleep, According to Experts

Newsweek  online

2022-01-16

Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognitive Laboratory at Baylor, explains that the best thing to do when struggling to sleep is to get out of bed. The article also mentions his recent sleep research that investigated the impact of musical “earworms” on sleep quality.

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Why Do I Wake Up At 3 A.M. Worrying? Sleep Experts Explain

Newsweek  online

2022-01-04

Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Lab, is quoted in this article explaining why the early hours of the morning put our minds into overdrive.

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Health Check: New research on the Omicron variant

BBC Radio  online

2021-12-22

AUDIO: Many people listen to music for hours every day, and often near bedtime in the hope of a good night’s sleep. But if you can’t get the tune out of your head, could this be counter-productive? In new research, Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, has looked at the rarely studied effect of these so-called earworms.

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Reminder Apps on Smartphones May Help in Early Dementia

HealthDay  online

2021-11-18

Despite stereotypes about seniors and technology, a study led by Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., suggests that older adults in the early stages of dementia can use smartphone apps as memory aids. The research also was covered nationally by CBS Radio News and its affiliates throughout the country, including WINS in New York and WBBM in Chicago.

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Device Apps Aid Memory in Older Adults With Impaired Cognition

Health Day  online

2021-11-24

A study led by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, is quoted for its findings that older adults with cognitive disorders can improve daily prospective memory functioning when they learn to use digital voice recorder or smartphone memory aids to manage everyday tasks.

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Calling grandma: How a smartphone can help those with memory loss stay on track

KXXV-TV  online

2021-11-23

A study led by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, is featured in this article for its work correlating cell phone use to helping early signs of dementia.

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How to Get Great Sleep During Daylight Savings Time

Psychology Today  online

2021-11-08

A study by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, Chenlu Gao Paul, post-doc researcher at Harvard Medical School and Paul Fillmore, Ph.D., assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders, is quoted in this article for their findings that listening to catchy music before bed can make you much more likely to experience poor sleep.

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Earworms

BYU Radio  online

2021-09-16

Many pop songs these days are so catchy they can be torture—stuck in your head on a constant loop. Michael Scullin, Ph.D., professor of psychology and neuroscience, has been studying how memorable music affects sleep. He discusses his findings on Top of Mind with Julie Rose.

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Fort Worth and Arlington wake up to new ranking among 10 most well-rested U.S. cities

Fort Worth Culture Map  online

2021-07-16

Michael Scullin, Ph.D., professor of psychology and neuroscience, is quoted in this article ranking Arlington and Fort Worth among the 10 big U.S. cities where people get seven or more hours of sleep per day.

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Earworms Invading Human Brain When Awake Affects Sleep

The Science Times  online

2021-06-16

A new study examining earworms that penetrate the human brain when awake recently specified that their invasion in brains at night could affect one's sleep and staying asleep, as well. According to Baylor neuroscientist Michael Scullin, Ph.D., the brains continue processing music even nothing is playing anymore, including seemingly, while one is asleep. This research also was covered by Sleep Review magazine.

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Why Music at Bedtime Might Not Be a Great Idea

HealthDay  online

2021-06-14

That music at bedtime that's supposed to help you fall asleep may actually have the opposite effect, new research by Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D. It turns out that "earworms," those catchy bits of a composition that can get stuck in a person's head can also interject themselves into a person's dreams, affecting the ability to fall asleep and to sleep well.

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Music listening near bedtime disruptive to sleep, Baylor study finds

EurekAlert  online

2021-06-10

A new study led by Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., found that the relationship between music listening and sleep with the involuntary musical imagery, or “earworms,” when a song plays in a person’s mind can affect their sleep patterns.

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5 best quiet air purifiers of 2021, according to experts

NBC News  online

2021-03-17

This article about air purifiers that can be noisy and interrupt sleep mentions a a September 2020 survey from Baylor University sleep researchers doctoral candidate Chenlu Gao and Michael Scullin, Ph.D., which found 25 percent of Americans reported worsened sleep quality given Covid-19-related stress.

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How much sleep is too much sleep?

Gizmodo.com  online

2021-01-13

This article quotes Michael Scullin, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory about health, sleep “debt” and factors that affect sleep, such as aging and narcolepsy.

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How Exercise Affects Your Sleep

The Sport Review  online

2020-12-16

Studies have shown that high levels of activity during the day is linked to higher quality sleep; however, exercising late at night can have adverse effects on sleep quality. Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, explains the benefits of staying active during the day, exercising outdoors and avoiding working out late at night.

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Today’s lesson: Count your sheep

San Diego Union-Tribune  online

2020-06-05

Research on the importance of a good night’s sleep, especially on college students, by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, is included as part of this online lesson for K-12 students to practice writing skills.

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The Brain: Listening to this type of music may improve your work performance

Ladders  online

2020-05-18

Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor's Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, is quoted in this article about new Baylor research that found that students who listened to classical music as they slept performed much better on a test the next day.

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Sleep and COVID-19: Experts Offer 7 Tips for not Feeling so Exhausted

Inverse  online

2020-04-26

Michael Scullin, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor, is among the sleep experts quoted in this article about how COVID-19 has affected our sleep.

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Students Who Listened to Beethoven During Lecture — and Heard the Same Music in Dreamland — Did Better on Test Next Day

Baylor Media and Public Relations  online

2020-04-07

College students who listened to classical music during a computer-interactive lecture on microeconomics — and heard the music again that night — did better on a test the next day than did peers who were in the same lecture. Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s sleep lab and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, said that by experimentally priming concepts students learn during lectures in their sleep, they were able to increase performance on integration questions by 18 percent on the test the following day.

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3 Psychological Strategies to be More Focused at Work

Inverse  online

2020-02-19

This article about three strategies for people to use to boost productivity and achieve goals includes research by Baylor sleep scientist Michael Scullin, Ph.D., which found that taking five minutes before bedtime to write out your to-do list will help calm your mind and help you fall asleep faster.

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How To Stop Thinking About Work At 3 AM

TaxProf Blog  online

2020-02-05

This blog cites research by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, which found that making a to-do list for the following day before bed helps you to fall asleep faster and wake up fewer times during the night.

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Surprise! Exam scores benefit from months of regular sleep

Science News for Students  online

2020-01-03

Baylor sleep scientist Michael Scullin is quoted in this article about recent MIT research that looked at the importance of sleep to a students’ grades in a class. Scullin also investigates links between sleep and learning.

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Mitch with Michael Scullin, Ph.D., Baylor University

KRLD-Radio  radio

2019-09-10

AUDIO: Baylor University psychologist and sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, is interviewed by KRLD Radio’s Mitch Carr about a research study on caregivers and loss of sleep, which can accumulate and ultimately may interfere with the quality of care caregivers give their loved one. However, simple, low-cost ways can improve sleep.

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Baylor sleep researchers shine light on caregivers of dementia patients

Waco Tribune-Herald  online

2019-09-04

Taking care of a loved one can take a toll, but when it comes to sleep deprivation that toll can be invisible. Baylor University sleep researchers found caregivers for dementia patients typically lose sleep but that simple strategies can help them get the rest they need, according to a recently published analysis by doctoral candidate and lead author Chenlu Gao and Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory Director Michael Scullin, who analyzed 35 studies on the impact of dementia on the patients’ caregivers.

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Can behavioral changes improve sleep in caregivers of dementia patients?

Medical News Bulletin  online

2019-09-04

Baylor research found that caregivers of people with dementia lose between 2.5 to 3.5 hours of sleep weekly due to difficulty falling asleep and maintaining sleep, but simple, low-cost interventions can improve caregivers’ sleep and functioning. The study was led by Chenlu Gao, a doctoral candidate of psychology and neuroscience, and Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory.

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Baylor sleep researchers shine light on caregivers of dementia patients

Waco Tribune-Herald  print

2019-09-04

Taking care of a loved one can take a toll, but when it comes to sleep deprivation that toll can be invisible. Baylor University sleep researchers found caregivers for dementia patients typically lose sleep but that simple strategies can help them get the rest they need, according to a recently published analysis by doctoral candidate and lead author Chenlu Gao and Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory Director Michael Scullin, who analyzed 35 studies on the impact of dementia on the patients’ caregivers.

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The super simple 5-minute trick that can help you get to sleep quicker

Her Family  online

2019-08-31

This article about how writing down a few thoughts or tasks down at night can benefit your well-being mentions 2018 Baylor research led by Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience in the College of Arts & Sciences. The research found that people who took time to write a to-do list before going to bed fell asleep nine minutes faster on average.

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Caregivers of people with dementia are losing sleep

MedicalXpress  online

2019-08-24

Baylor research found that caregivers of people with dementia lose between 2.5 to 3.5 hours of sleep weekly due to difficulty falling asleep and maintaining sleep, but simple, low-cost interventions can improve caregivers’ sleep and functioning. The study was led by Chenlu Gao, a doctoral candidate of psychology and neuroscience, and Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory.

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Caregivers of People with Dementia Are Losing Sleep

ScienMag  online

2019-08-23

Baylor research found that caregivers of people with dementia lose between 2.5 to 3.5 hours of sleep weekly due to difficulty falling asleep and maintaining sleep, but simple, low-cost interventions can improve caregivers’ sleep and functioning. The study was led by Chenlu Gao, a doctoral candidate of psychology and neuroscience, and Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory.

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How writing your to-do lists can help you sleep

USA TODAY  online

2018-01-16

Thinking of the long lists of tasks we have on our plates might leave most of us anxious, but new Baylor research suggests writing them down could help us get some sleep. Those in the research study who wrote down their to-do lists for the next day were able to fall asleep faster. "Most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, and so we wanted to explore whether the act of writing them down could counteract nighttime difficulties with falling asleep." said Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory. Findings were published in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Experimental Psychology.

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Key to Sleeping? Writing a To-Do List

Good Morning America  tv

2018-01-15

A surprising and easy solution for those who have trouble falling asleep may be to write a to-do list of what they need to do the next day or new few days, according to a Baylor study led by Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, and conducted in the lab on a week night. Half the group wrote a to-do list before bedtime; the other half chronicled completed tasks. The “to-do” group fell asleep an average of nine minutes sooner than the other group, suggesting making a list helps clear the head and make sleep easier.

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Students to participate in neuroscience sleeping lab

The Barylor Lariat  

2015-10-14

Dr. Michael K. Scullin, director of the sleep lab, has been conducting research on the effects of sleep on cognition, memory and learning in young adults. Scullin’s lab is a 1,650-square-foot lab consisting of three bedrooms equipped with sleep recording technology. There are monitoring screens and equipment to measure the brain’s electrical activities. “We are getting individuals of all different ages, from college students to people from the community in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and we’re trying to identify changes in physiology, sleep fragmentation, slow waves, and see which of these changes is most important in memory and cognition,” Scullin said. Participants in Scullin’s research spend three nights in the observation laboratory. To increase participation, Scullin makes the experience as pleasant as possible. “One of our goals is to get people as relaxed as possible when they come here. So we have things like spa music and we dim the lights. We tell them what we’re going to do and they can tell us if anything is uncomfortable,” Scullin said. Baylor undergraduate research technicians Madison Krueger and Claudina Tami demonstrated what participants would go through on dissertation-level graduate student Michelle Dasse ...

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New Baylor lab lets subjects sleep for science

Waco Tribune  

2015-10-13

Michael Scullin, director of the new lab, is studying how sleep quality changes as people age, and that work requires subjects willing to spend three nights each in one of the lab’s bedrooms. They sleep attached to electrodes that monitor their brain activity and eye and face movement, offering insight into the quality of their sleep. Subjects earn $50 for each night, but the opportunity to contribute to science has been the study’s best draw for participants, Scullin said ...

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Invest in sleep at a young age to reap cognitive rewards later in life

Sleep Review - The Journal for Sleep Specialists  

2015-01-30

The research raises an “alluring question,” says Michael K. Scullin, PhD, director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, who examined 50 years of sleep research for an article in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. “If sleep benefits memory and thinking in young adults but is changed in quantity and quality with age, then the question is whether improving sleep might delay—or reverse—age-related changes in memory and thinking,” says Scullin, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences, in a release. “It’s the difference between investing up front rather than trying to compensate later,” he said. “We came across studies that showed that sleeping well in middle age predicted better mental functioning 28 years later” ...

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Investing in sleep while you're young helps cognition in old age

Big Think Blog  

2015-01-25

Erin Blakemore from the Smithsonian wrote on the study that was led by Michael K. Scullin, a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University, who poured over 50 years of sleep-related research with the help of a team of scientists. The research was published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, which includes data from 200 separate studies that date as far back as 1967. This data provided Scullin and his team evidence that showed there's a close link to cognition and the amount of sleep older participants got in their youth and middling years ...

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Good sleep in youth and middle age linked to better memory in old age

Psych Central  

2015-01-23

Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor University’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, reviewed 50 years of sleep research and discovered some interesting findings. “We came across studies that showed that sleeping well in middle age predicted better mental functioning 28 years later.” Therefore, improving sleep early in life might delay, or even reverse, age-related changes in memory and thinking. “It’s the difference between investing up front rather than trying to compensate later,” said Scullin. The article — “Sleep, Cognition, and Normal Aging: Integrating a Half Century of Multidisciplinary Research,” has been published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Scullin notes that the benefits of a sound night’s sleep for young adults are diverse and unmistakable. One example is that a particular kind of “deep sleep” called “slow-(brain)-wave-sleep” helps memory by taking pieces of a day’s experiences, replaying them and strengthening them for better recollection ...

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Articles (5)

An implementation intention strategy can improve prospective memory in older adults with very mild Alzheimer's disease

British Journal of Clinical Psychology

2015 This study tested whether (1) very mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with impaired prospective memory (PM) for tasks that are supported by either spontaneous retrieval (focal PM) or strategic monitoring (non-focal PM) and (2) implementation intention (II) encoding could improve PM performance in very mild AD.

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Sleep, Cognition, and Normal Aging Integrating a Half Century of Multidisciplinary Research

Perspectives on Psychological Sciences

2015 Sleep is implicated in cognitive functioning in young adults. With increasing age, there are substantial changes to sleep quantity and quality, including changes to slow-wave sleep, spindle density, and sleep continuity/fragmentation. A provocative question for the field of cognitive aging is whether such changes in sleep physiology affect cognition (e.g., memory consolidation). We review nearly a half century of research across seven diverse correlational and experimental domains that historically have had little crosstalk. Broadly speaking, sleep and cognitive functions are often related in advancing age, though the prevalence of null effects in healthy older adults (including correlations in the unexpected, negative direction) indicates that age may be an effect modifier of these associations. We interpret the literature as suggesting that maintaining good sleep quality, at least in young adulthood and middle age, promotes better cognitive functioning and serves to protect against age-related cognitive declines.

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Cognitive correlates of hallucinations and delusions in Parkinson's disease

Journal of Neurological Sciences

2014 Hallucinations and delusions that complicate Parkinson's disease (PD) could lead to nursing home placement and are linked to increased mortality. Cognitive impairments are typically associated with the presence of hallucinations but there are no data regarding whether such a relationship exists with delusions.

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Sleep, memory, and aging: The link between slow-wave sleep and episodic memory changes from younger to older adults

Psychological Aging

2013 In younger adults, recently learned episodic memories are reactivated and consolidated during slow-wave sleep (SWS). Interestingly, SWS declines across the lifespan but little research has examined whether sleep-dependent memory consolidation occurs in older adults. In the present study, younger adults and healthy older adults encoded word pairs in the morning or evening and then returned following a sleep or no-sleep interval. Sleep stage scoring was obtained using a home sleep-stage monitoring system. In the younger adult group, there was a positive correlation between word retention and amount of SWS. In contrast, the older adults demonstrated no significant positive correlations, but one significant negative correlation, between memory and SWS. These findings suggest that the link between episodic memory and SWS that is typically observed in younger adults may be weakened or otherwise changed in the healthy elderly.

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The Dynamic Multiprocess Framework: Evidence from prospective memory with contextual variability

Cognitive Psychology

2013 The ability to remember to execute delayed intentions is referred to as prospective memory. Previous theoretical and empirical work has focused on isolating whether a particular prospective memory task is supported either by effortful monitoring processes or by cue-driven spontaneous processes. In the present work, we advance the Dynamic Multiprocess Framework, which contends that both monitoring and spontaneous retrieval may be utilized dynamically to support prospective remembering. To capture the dynamic interplay between monitoring and spontaneous retrieval, we had participants perform many ongoing tasks and told them that their prospective memory cue may occur in any context. Following either a 20-min or a 12-h retention interval, the prospective memory cues were presented infrequently across three separate ongoing tasks. The monitoring patterns (measured as ongoing task cost relative to a between-subjects control condition) were consistent and robust across the three contexts. There was no evidence for monitoring prior to the initial prospective memory cue; however, individuals who successfully spontaneously retrieved the prospective memory intention, thereby realizing that prospective memory cues could be expected within that context, subsequently monitored. These data support the Dynamic Multiprocess Framework, which contends that individuals will engage monitoring when prospective memory cues are expected, disengage monitoring when cues are not expected, and that when monitoring is disengaged, a probabilistic spontaneous retrieval mechanism can support prospective remembering.

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