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Updated: Dec 17, 2025

Measuring Neural Mechanisms Underlying Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation During Naps in Early Childhood
Published on: October 2, 2019
The power of children's sleep - Improved declarative memory consolidation in children compared with adults
Anna Peiffer1,2, Maud Brichet3,4, Xavier De Tiège3
1Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau (LCFC), UNI - ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium. anna.peiffer@ulb.ac.be.
Abstract:
Post-learning slow wave sleep (SWS) is known to support declarative memory consolidation. As SWS is more abundant in young population, we suggested that sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes could occur at a faster pace in school-aged children. After learning new associations between non-objects and their functions, retrieval performance was tested in 30 children (7-12 years) and 34 adults (20-30 years) during an immediate (IR) and a delayed retrieval (DR) session separated by either a Sleep or a Wake condition. Sleep led to stabilized memory retrieval performance only in children, not in adults, whereas no age-related difference was observed after a similar period of wakefulness. Hence, our results suggest more efficient sleep-dependent declarative memory consolidation processes in children compared with adults, an effect potentially ascribed to more abundant and deeper SWS during childhood.
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