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| Can patients with dementia benefit from sleep in the same way as non-brain-damaged people do? |
| Ph.D. Project of | Supervised by |
| Nadine Reinhold |
Prof. Dr. Peter Clarenbach und Prof. Dr. Hans J. Markowitsch |
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The relationship between learning- and memory abilities and sleep have been widely discussed through the last years
(overview in Maquet, 2001). It is not quite clear particularly which factors
or sleep stages are involved. There are several models of explanations which do not exclude each other but each add
another aspect of explanation to define the influence of sleep on learning and memory
(Schredl, 1998). With the detection of REM-sleep (Dement & Kleitman, 1957) and the introduction of polysomnography (cp. Rechtschaffen & Kales, 1968) it became possible to record brain activation as well as eye movement and muscular tonus. By using these recordings one can distinguish sleep in different sleep stages. Based on the clear differences between REM and Non-REM sleep, particularly REM sleep and slow wave sleep (SWS), one can presume that in these sleep stages different memory contents are processed. SWS is often brought in relationship with the processing of declarative memory contents while the processing of non-declarative memory contents seems to be related to REM-sleep (Plihal, 1996). There are several studies that confirm that one gains more profit of learning session before night sleep than of learning session without following sleep (Smith, 1996; Hennevin, et al., 1995). The project will investigate, if this relationship between sleep and memory can also be found for patients that have - due to their clinical picture - memory disabilities. Therefore the following groups will be included: patients with probable Alzheimer`s disease (overview in Reiman & Caselli, 1999), patients with probable dementia with Lewy bodies (cp. McKeith et al., 1996) and patients with vascular dementia (overview in McPherson & Cummings, 1996). For the comparison of their cognitive status all involved persons will be examined with a neuropsychological tests. To answer the main question a memory test battery including test about the following memory features is assessed: figural, numeric, visual-constructive, procedural and perceptual. Figure 1 shows the examinational design: | |
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The patient's results are going to be compared with the results of a control group with age, sex and educational
matched persons. The test results from the two examinations are being compared (experimental learning and control
learning) as well as the sleep architecture within the patients and between patients and controls (experimental night
and control night).
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