Commentary: Down with Retirement: Implications of Embodied Cognition for Healthy Aging

Sleep quality and memory function in healthy ageing

OBJECTIVE

To study the relationship between sleep quality and memory in healthy ageing.

METHODS

The study included 99 people older than 50 years (69 women and 30 men; mean age, 68.74±7.18 years) with no associated diseases. Patients completed digital versions of the Word Learning and Visual Paired Associates tests and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire to assess the quality of sleep.

RESULTS

Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score was negatively correlated with Visual Paired Associates and Word Learning test performance. Performance in these 2 memory tests decreased in line with sleep quality. In addition, performance in Visual Paired Associates test was negatively correlated with subjective sleep quality, duration, and sleep disturbances. Performance on the Word Learning test was negatively correlated with subjective sleep quality and efficiency. Participants' sex showed a weak effect on Visual Paired Associates performance and sleep latency.

CONCLUSIONS

Medical professionals working with elderly patients should take into consideration the effect of poor sleep quality on memory. Cognitive impairment in these patients may be a manifestation of a neuroendocrine imbalance due to a disrupted circadian rhythm. More research is needed to prove this hypothesis.

Sleep quality and memory function in healthy ageing

OBJECTIVE

To study the relationship between sleep quality and memory in healthy ageing.

METHODS

The study included 99 people older than 50 years (69 women and 30 men; mean age, 68.74 ± 7.18 years) with no associated diseases. Patients completed digital versions of the Word Learning (WL) and Visual Paired Associates (VPA) tests and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire to assess the quality of sleep.

RESULTS

PSQI score was negatively correlated with VPA and WL test performance. Performance in these 2 memory tests decreased in line with sleep quality. In addition, performance in VPA test was negatively correlated with subjective sleep quality, duration, and sleep disturbances. Performance on the WL test was negatively correlated with subjective sleep quality and efficiency. Participants' sex showed a weak effect on VPA performance and sleep latency.

CONCLUSIONS

Medical professionals working with elderly patients should take into consideration the effect of poor sleep quality on memory. Cognitive impairment in these patients may be a manifestation of a neuroendocrine imbalance due to a disrupted circadian rhythm. More research is needed to prove this hypothesis.

What helps children learn difficult tasks: A teacher's presence may be worth more than a screen

AIMS

What helps children learn: is it a presence of a live teacher or an interaction with the learning materials? Addressing this question, we manipulated a teacher's presence (on-screen vs. present) and activity (observing vs. doing) while teaching children about the properties of geometric shapes.

METHOD

Five-year-olds (n = 215) completed two shape-sorting tasks in which they distinguished between typical, atypical and non-valid shapes. In between these tasks, they took part in one of four training sessions: doing teacher-present, observing teacher-present, doing teacher-on-screen and observing teacher-on-screen.

RESULTS

Although children's shape knowledge improved across all training conditions, learning showed an interaction between teacher presence and task difficulty. In a teacher's presence, children learned more about the most difficult (atypical) shapes, irrespective of activity. It may be the social interaction, associated with a teacher's presence, that enhances learning. Conversely, physically taking part in interactive touchscreen training did not result in more learning than passive screen viewing.