NREM Sleep in the Aging Brain: Implications for Emotional Memory

Sleep is not a passive period of neural quiescence but an active brain state essential for memory consolidation. This function becomes particularly critical in the context of aging, where alterations in sleep architecture and neural circuit integrity are closely linked to cognitive decline. Among behavioral paradigms used to probe sleep-memory interactions, fear conditioning provides a powerful framework to study how emotional memories are processed across the lifespan. NREM sleep, which constitutes the majority of total sleep time, contains key oscillatory events—slow oscillations, sleep spindles, and hippocampal ripples—that support systems-level memory consolidation. Notably, aging is associated with disruptions in these oscillatory dynamics, which may impair memory precision and emotional regulation. Understanding how sleep-dependent mechanisms evolve with age is therefore central to elucidating neurocognitive aging and vulnerability to neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.This Research Topic aims to synthesize and critically evaluate how aging influences the role of NREM sleep in fear memory modulation, integrating insights from behavioral, circuit-level, and translational studies. While NREM sleep is widely recognized as essential for memory consolidation, its role in emotional memory—and how this role shifts with aging—remains incompletely understood. Age-related disruptions in slow oscillation–spindle–ripple coupling may alter the balance between memory stabilization and flexibility, potentially contributing to impaired fear extinction and increased emotional rigidity observed in older individuals. Recent work suggests that targeted memory reactivation during NREM sleep can bidirectionally modulate fear memories; however, whether such interventions remain effective in aging populations is an open question. Furthermore, emerging evidence links age-dependent alterations in sleep oscillations to deficits in fear extinction and increased susceptibility to anxiety and neurodegenerative disease. By bringing together studies across lifespan models and human aging cohorts, this Topic seeks to define mechanistic principles of sleep-dependent emotional memory processing in aging and identify potential therapeutic strategies to preserve cognitive and emotional resilience.We welcome contributions that address neurocognitive aging within the framework of sleep-dependent memory processing, including:· Mechanistic studies investigating how age-related changes in NREM oscillations and their coupling influence fear memory consolidation, extinction, and synaptic plasticity.· Comparative and lifespan studies examining differences in sleep-dependent emotional memory processing between young and aged populations, including animal models and human cohorts.· Translational research linking sleep disruptions in aging to cognitive decline, emotional dysregulation, and neurodegenerative disease risk, as well as interventions aimed at restoring sleep architecture or enhancing memory function.· Conceptual and review articles integrating theories of neurocognitive aging with sleep-based memory frameworks, highlighting emerging directions in aging neuroscience. Topic editors: Yuhua Huang, Daniel Kroeger Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80174/nrem-sleep-in-the-aging-brain-implications-for-emotional-memory