Melatonin alleviates retrieval-induced forgetting deficits in acute sleep deprivation mice

Selective retrieval of target memories can induce forgetting of related competitors, a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), which depends on fronto-hippocampal inhibitory control and is disrupted in several neuropsychiatric diseases. However, whether sleep loss, a pervasive cause of executive dysfunction, impairs RIF remain unknown. Here we examined RIF‑like effect after 72 h of total sleep deprivation in mice using a spontaneous object recognition task, and tested the effects of melatonin administered during deprivation. We show that normally rested mice exhibit robust RIF, while acute sleep deprivation selectively abolishes this effect, with relatively sparing baseline novelty preference. Melatonin treatment during deprivation relieves RIF‑like deficits, while the corticosterone receptor inhibitor RU-486 did not. These findings identify RIF‑like effect as a sleep sensitive marker of inhibitory memory control and suggest that melatonin can normalize executive aspects of memory under acute sleep loss, with implications for cognitive resilience and therapeutic strategies in sleep restricted populations.