Positivity Effect and Working Memory Performance Remains Intact in Older Adults After Sleep Deprivation

Abstract

Background: Older adults perform better in tasks which include positive stimuli, referred to as the positivity effect. However, recent research suggests that the positivity effect could be attenuated when additional challenges such as stress or cognitive demands are introduced. Moreover, it is well established that older adults are relatively resilient to many of the adverse effects of sleep deprivation. Our aim was to investigate if the positivity effect in older adults is affected by one night of total sleep deprivation using an emotional working memory task. Methods: A healthy sample of 48 older adults (60-72 years) was either sleep deprived for one night (n = 24) or had a normal night’s sleep (n = 24). They performed an emotional working memory n-back (n = 1 & 3) task containing positive, negative and neutral pictures. Results: Performance in terms of accuracy and reaction times was best for positive stimuli and worst for negative stimuli. This positivity effect was not altered by sleep deprivation. Results also showed that, despite significantly increased sleepiness, there was no effect of sleep deprivation on working memory performance. A working memory load × valence interaction on the reaction times revealed that the beneficial effect of positive stimuli was only present in the 1-back condition. Conclusion: While the positivity effect and general working memory abilities in older adults are intact after one night of sleep deprivation, increased cognitive demand attenuates the positivity effect on working memory speed.

Efficacy And Safety of Electroacupuncture Treatment In The Prevention of Negative Moods In Health Young Men After 30 Hours of Total Sleep Deprivation: Study Protocol For A Single-Center, Single-Blind, Parallel-Arm, Randomized Clinical Trial

“…The study has some limitations in terms of the selection of subjects. Studies [32,33] have shown that older people are less emotionally affected by SD than younger people, and that the negative effects of SD are stronger in younger people than in older people. Moreover, the effects are greater among women than in men.…”

See no evil: Attentional bias towards threat is diminished in aged monkeys

“…A hallmark feature of human socioaffective aging is a phenomenon referred to as the age-related positivity effect-an age-related information processing bias towards positive, and/or away from negative, affective information (for a review see Carstensen & DeLiema, 2018; for a meta-analysis see Reed et al, 2014). 1 For example, compared to younger adults, older adults tend to recall proportionately more positive relative to negative information (Charles et al, 2003;Gerhardsson et al, 2019;Joubert et al, 2018; Q. Kennedy et al, 2004;Mammarella et al, 2016), use more positive language (Kyröläinen et al, 2021), and attend more to positively and less to negatively valenced visual stimuli (Isaacowitz et al, 2006a(Isaacowitz et al, , 2006bLee & Knight, 2009;, 2005Nikitin & Freund, 2011;Orgeta, 2011;Talbot et 1 Importantly, the age-related positivity effect does not refer to any age-related biases in affective experience.…”

See no evil: Attentional bias toward threat is diminished in aged monkeys.

“…A hallmark feature of human socioaffective aging is a phenomenon referred to as the age-related positivity effect—an age-related information processing bias toward positive, and/or away from negative, affective information (for a review see Carstensen & DeLiema, 2018; for a meta-analysis see Reed et al, 2014). For example, compared to younger adults, older adults tend to recall proportionately more positive relative to negative information (Charles et al, 2003; Gerhardsson et al, 2019; Joubert et al, 2018; Q. Kennedy et al, 2004; Mammarella et al, 2016), use more positive language (Kyröläinen et al, 2021), and attend more to positively and less to negatively valenced visual stimuli (Isaacowitz et al, 2006a, 2006b; L.…”