Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

It is widely accepted that sleep plays an important role in the formation of memories. It is also clear that older adults experience more sleep problems and cognitive difficulties than younger adults. The present study will examine the role of sleep in procedural memory consolidation in both young and older adults. It is hypothesized that better sleep will correlate with better task performance and that younger participants will learn better and sleep better than older ones. Guitar Hero III will be used as a complex, engaging motor learning task. Participants will have their sleep recorded polysomnographically for 3 consecutive nights. The motor learning session will occur on the third night. Task performance and sleep architecture changes will be compared between the young and older groups. The results of this study may have implications for the role of sleep in cognitive decline (e.g., Alzheimer disease) and examining sleep quality may provide a basis for earlier medical interventions.