Andrew W Stamm, Nam D Nguyen, Benjamin J Seicol, Abigail Fagan, Angela Oh, Michael Drumm, Maureen Lundt, Robert Stickgold, Erin J Wamsley
Author Information
Andrew W Stamm: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Nam D Nguyen: Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Benjamin J Seicol: Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Abigail Fagan: University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14604, USA.
Angela Oh: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Michael Drumm: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Maureen Lundt: Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Robert Stickgold: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Erin J Wamsley: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA erin.wamsley@furman.edu.
Post-learning sleep is beneficial for human memory. However, it may be that not all memories benefit equally from sleep. Here, we manipulated a spatial learning task using monetary reward and performance feedback, asking whether enhancing the salience of the task would augment overnight memory consolidation and alter its incorporation into dreaming. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that the addition of reward impaired overnight consolidation of spatial memory. Our findings seemingly contradict prior reports that enhancing the reward value of learned information augments sleep-dependent memory processing. Given that the reward followed a negative reinforcement paradigm, consolidation may have been impaired via a stress-related mechanism.
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