News

Babies’ brains process emotional tone of voice even while asleep

Apr 02 2013...

Being exposed to arguing parents is associated with the way babies' brains process emotional tone of voice, according to a newly published study by University of Oregon researchers.

UO doctoral student Alice Graham, working with her faculty advisers Phil Fisher and Jennifer Pfeifer, found that infants respond to angry tone of voice, even when they're asleep. The study appears in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. READ MORE>>

Study finds sleep consolidates memories for competing tasks

Mar 20 2013...

Sleep plays an important role in the brain’s ability to consolidate learning when two new potentially competing tasks are learned in the same day, new research at the University of Chicago finds.

Other studies have shown that sleep consolidates learning for a new task. The new study, which measured starlings’ ability to recognize new songs, shows that learning a second task can undermine the performance of a previously learned task. But this study is the first to show that a good night’s sleep helps the brain retain both new memories. READ MORE>>

Sleep reinforces learning, especially in children

Feb 27 2013...

A new study reveals how important it is for children to get enough sleep. Children’s brains transform subconsciously learning material into active knowledge while they sleep – even more effectively than adult brains do, according to the study by Dr. Ines Wilhem of the University of Tübingen’s Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology.

"In children, much more efficient explicit knowledge is generated during sleep from a previously learned implicit task, says Dr. Wilhelm. And the children's extraordinary ability is linked with the large amount of deep sleep they get at night. "The formation of explicit knowledge appears to be a very specific ability of childhood sleep, since children typically benefit as much or less than adults from sleep when it comes to other types of memory tasks." READ MORE>>

Snoring in infancy linked to impaired cognitive development

Dec 08 2011...

Two studies from Australia associate snoring in the first year of life to impaired cognitive development. Researchers suggest that lower cognitive development could become worse in these infants with age. READ MORE>>