Trial reportNeurobiology of aging2015
Memory improvement via slow-oscillatory stimulation during sleep in older adults.
Trial report in Neurobiology of aging, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 163 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation on cognitive function in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025Pooled it
- The Effects of Transcranial Electrical Stimulation of the Brain on Sleep: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- New Methods, Old Brains-A Systematic Review on the Effects of tDCS on the Cognition of Elderly People.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Applications to Memory in Healthy Aging.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Pooled it
- Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on cognition through sleep slow-wave activity in older adults.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Acoustic enhancement of sleep slow oscillations in mild cognitive impairment.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2019Trial
- Low frequency transcranial electrical stimulation does not entrain sleep rhythms measured by human intracranial recordings.Nature communications · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Random auditory stimulation during sleep disturbs traveling slow waves and declarative memory.iScience · 2026Article
- Investigating the role of beta and gamma tACS in visual processing and conscious perception.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- Neurocognition After Perturbed Sleep (NAPS): A Protocol for an Experimental Study Examining the Impact of Sleep on Neurocognition, Functioning, and Clinical Indicators in People with Schizophrenia.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Impact of spindle-inspired transcranial alternating current stimulation during a nap on sleep-dependent motor memory consolidation in healthy older adults.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2025Article
- Polarity-dependent modulation of sleep oscillations and cortical excitability in aging.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Slow wave activity disruptions and memory impairments in a mouse model of aging.Neurobiology of aging · 2024Article
- The new science of sleep: From cells to large-scale societies.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- No Benefit in Memory Performance after Nocturnal Memory Reactivation Coupled with Theta-tACS.Clocks & sleep · 2024Article
- From macro to micro: slow-wave sleep and its pivotal health implications.Frontiers in sleep · 2024Review
- Altered Sleep Oscillations as Neurophysiological Biomarkers of Schizophrenia.Advances in neurobiology · 2024Review
- Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
We examined the intriguing but controversial idea that disrupted sleep-dependent consolidation contributes to age-related memory decline. Slow-wave activity during sleep may help strengthen neural connections and provide memories with long-term stability, in which case decreased slow-wave activity in older adults could contribute to their weaker memories. One prediction from this account is that age-related memory deficits should be reduced by artificially enhancing slow-wave activity. In young adults, applying transcranial current oscillating at a slow frequency (0.75 Hz) during sleep improves memory. Here, we tested whether this procedure can improve memory in older adults. In 2 sessions separated by 1 week, we applied either slow-oscillatory stimulation or sham stimulation during an afternoon nap in a double-blind, crossover design. Memory tests were administered before and after sleep. A larger improvement in word-pair recall and higher slow-wave activity was observed with slow-oscillatory stimulation than with sham stimulation. This is the first demonstration that this procedure can improve memory in older adults, suggesting that declarative memory performance in older adults is partly dependent on slow-wave activity during sleep.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.