How Sleep And Mood Impact Working Memory

Two new studies assess how working memory the memory we use on a day-to-day basis in decision-making processes is affected by age, mood, and sleep quality and whether these factors impact memory together or on their own

Islamabad (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th May, 2019) Two new studies assess how working memory the memory we use on a day-to-day basis in decision-making processes is affected by age, mood, and sleep quality and whether these factors impact memory together or on their own.As a person advances in age, this faculty tends to decline, but there are also other factors particularly depressed mood and low sleep quality that can affect it, both in the short and long terms.A team of researchers from four institutions the University of California, Riverside, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, in Bethesda, MD has recently conducted two studies looking at the factors that impact working memory.Unlike previous research, however, the new study looks at how these factors affect both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of working memory.

These terms refer, respectively, to the strength and accuracy of working memory, and how likely it is that memories associated with this faculty are stored in the brain.Impact on quality vs. quantityAfter looking at studies that analyzed these factors separately, the researchers wanted to consider them together."The piecemeal approach used in previous investigations on these relationships examining the relationship between one of these health-related factors and working memory could open up the possibility that an observed effect may be influenced by other factors," notes Zhang.The current research included two separate studies with findings that were complementary.

For the first study, the investigators recruited 110 college students, who they asked to provide self-reported measures regarding their regular sleep quality and their experience with depressed moods.