Promoting Peer Connectedness Through Social-Emotional Learning: Evaluating the Intervention Effect Mechanisms and Implementation Factors of a Social-Emotional Learning Programme for 9 to 12-Year-Olds.

There is little evidence regarding the effect mechanisms of social-emotional learning programs on children's peer relationships. The current study evaluated a novel school-based social-emotional learning program for the first year of secondary school assessing effects on social-emotional skills, peer connectedness, happiness, student and teacher classroom climate. The sample included 19 intervention classrooms (n = 399) and 16 waitlist-control classrooms (n = 281), with a mean age of 10.34 (SD = 0.76) and 48.8% girls. The main intervention effect analysis followed a per-protocol approach and was thus conducted with eight classes that finished all sessions (n = 195) and the control group classes (n = 281). It was further hypothesized that increases in social-emotional skills would predict peer connectedness and class climate increases, which would predict happiness. Results indicated significant intervention effects for social skills, peer connectedness and happiness. Classroom climate declined for both groups, seemingly affected by the school transition. Hypothesized relationships between target variables were partly supported with significant effects of social-emotional skills on connectedness and significant effects of peer connectedness on happiness for children reporting connectedness decreases. Additional analyses were conducted including all classrooms to compare the intervention's effectiveness across different implementation progress groups. Significant group differences were found, indicating that implementation aspects impact intervention outcomes. The findings indicate that universal, school-based social-emotional leaning programs are effective approaches to support peer relationships in the context of the school transition. However, more implementation support seems to be needed to ensure best-practice delivery and achieve maximal intervention effectiveness.

Sleep Fosters Odor Recognition in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder but Not in Typically Developing Children.

Prior experience represents a prerequisite for memory consolidation across various memory systems. In the context of olfaction, sleep was found to enhance the consolidation of odors in adults but not in typically developing children (TDC), likely due to differences in pre-experience. Interestingly, unmedicated children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neurodevelopmental condition related to dopamine dysfunction, showed lower perceptive thresholds for odors, potentially allowing for more odor experience compared to TDC. We investigated sleep-associated odor memory consolidation in ADHD. Twenty-eight children with ADHD and thirty age-matched TDC participated in an incidental odor recognition task. For the sleep groups (ADHD: n = 14, TDC: n = 15), the encoding of 10 target odorants took place in the evening, and the retention of odorants was tested with 10 target odorants and 10 distractor odorants the next morning. In the wake groups (ADHD: n = 14, TDC: n = 15), the time schedule was reversed. Odor memory consolidation was superior in the ADHD sleep group compared to the TDC sleep and the ADHD wake groups. Intensity and familiarity ratings during encoding were substantially higher in ADHD compared to TDC. Sleep-associated odor memory consolidation in ADHD is superior to TDC. Abundant pre-experience due to lower perceptive thresholds is suggested as a possible explanation. Olfaction might serve as a biomarker in ADHD.

Detours increase local knowledge-Exploring the hidden benefits of self-control failure.

Self-control enables people to override momentary thoughts, emotions, or impulses in order to pursue long-term goals. Good self-control is a predictor for health, success, and subjective well-being, as bad self-control is for the opposite. Therefore, the question arises why evolution has not endowed us with perfect self-control. In this article, we draw some attention to the hidden benefits of self-control failure and present a new experimental paradigm that captures both costs and benefits of self-control failure. In an experiment, participants worked on three consecutive tasks: 1) In a transcription task, we manipulated how much effortful self-control two groups of participants had to exert. 2) In a number-comparison task, participants of both groups were asked to compare numbers and ignore distracting neutral versus reward-related pictures. 3) After a pause for recreation, participants were confronted with an unannounced recognition task measuring whether they had incidentally encoded the distracting pictures during the previous number-comparison task. The results showed that participants who exerted a high amount of effortful self-control during the first task shifted their priorities and attention toward the distractors during the second self-control demanding task: The cost of self-control failure was reflected in worse performance in the number-comparison task. Moreover, the group which had exerted a high amount of self-control during the first task and showed self-control failure during the second task was better in the unannounced third task. The benefit of self-control failure during number comparison was reflected in better performance during the recognition task. However, costs and benefits were not specific for reward-related distractors but also occurred with neutral pictures. We propose that the hidden benefit of self-control failure lies in the exploration of distractors present during goal pursuit, i.e. the collection of information about the environment and the potential discovery of new sources of reward. Detours increase local knowledge.

The Effect of Hunger and Satiety on Mood-Related Food Craving.

In addition to hunger, which results from food deprivation, fasting, or restrained eating, food craving is thought to be one of the major factors influencing eating behavior. Although food craving occurs in healthy humans with normal eating behavior, research suggests pronounced food craving to be a risk factor for binging food, which in turn might cause weight gain and obesity. In addition, negative mood seems to induce binge eating, although the underlying processes are not clearly understood. To examine these effects on momentary food craving more closely, we implemented a food cue-reactivity paradigm in 33 normal-weight females (mean age = 25.1 years, mean BMI = 21.6). Mood (negative vs. neutral) and state of food deprivation (hunger vs. satiety) were varied systematically. Self-rated craving was significantly higher in hungry compared to sated states. Moreover, in neutral mood, high-caloric foods modulated craving, i.e., hungry and sated participants preferred savory food and sweet food, respectively. In negative mood, this differential effect of savory and sweet items was absent. In summary, the state of hunger has a huge impact on food craving, which is further modulated by emotional state. Future research should consider hunger to be of high relevance for effects investigated in food-related paradigms. Our findings in healthy women of normal weight support etiological models of disturbed eating behavior and are in line with common interventions targeting eating schedules and mood regulation.

Adult patients with ADHD differ from healthy controls in implicit, but not explicit, emotion regulation

Background: There is increasing evidence that people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are impaired in emotion regulation, but psychophysiological and functional MRI data on emotion processing in adult patients with ADHD are scarce. We investigated the neural correlates of reappraisal as one of the most efficient emotion-regulation strategies. Methods: We included 30 adult patients with ADHD and 35 healthy controls in our study. We applied a well-established reappraisal paradigm in functional MRI and assessed behavioural emotion-regulation strategies with standardized questionnaires. We hypothesized that patients with ADHD would demonstrate impaired reappraisal related to reduced activations in the frontoparietal cognitive control network. Results: Despite our hypothesis, we found no significant activation differences in the neural reappraisal network between patients with ADHD and controls. As well, both groups revealed similar reappraisal success on the immediate behavioural ratings in the scanner. Interestingly, patients with ADHD revealed significantly increased activations in the dorsal and ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) compared to controls when viewing negative > neutral pictures. These ACC activations were significantly correlated with the prevalence of habitual use of reappraisal in patients with ADHD only. Limitations: Patients withdrew medication only 24 hours before the experiment; we investigated negative, but not positive, emotion processing and regulation. Conclusion: Although emotion dysregulation is regarded as a core symptom of ADHD, explicit reappraisal does not seem to be impaired in adult patients. However, increased activation of the ACC implies stronger implicit emotion regulation induced by negative stimuli. This might be explained by emotional hyperresponsivity in patients with ADHD compared with controls.

Social cognition in patients with intracranial tumors: do we forget something in the routine neuropsychological examination?

PURPOSE: Social cognitive functions are of high clinical relevance. To date, little is known about social cognition in neurooncological patients and this domain is usually not included in standardized neurocognitive test batteries. Aim of this study was thus to assess whether social cognition could pose a useful contribution to the neurocognitive assessment in patients with intracranial tumors. METHODS: We included 30 preoperative patients with a brain tumor. Patients completed a comprehensive test battery for assessment of social cognition. Thirty healthy participants matched for age, gender, and education, served as control group. Clinical relevance of social cognitive deficits was assessed via various self-report measures as well as a clinical rating scale assessing social and occupational functioning. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients (83%) were impaired in at least one measure of social cognition. Whereas patients with lesions to the temporal lobes were most severely impaired, deficits occurred in patients with tumors of a variety of localizations, sizes and malignancies. There was some evidence for missing patients' awareness as well as clinical significance of social cognitive deficits in terms of impaired interactional and occupational functioning. By combination of the Faux-Pas and the Eyes-Test, 77% of patients who were impaired in any social cognitive task were detected. CONCLUSIONS: Deficits in social cognition are frequent and clinically relevant in patients with intracranial tumors. The inclusion of social cognitive measures in the routine neuropsychological examination for brain tumor patients might add valuable information about the patient whilst requiring reasonable additional resources.

Slow-wave sleep predicts long-term social functioning in severe mental illness.

Sleep's relevance for long-term social functioning in psychiatric disorders has been widely overlooked so far. Here, we investigate social functioning in a transdiagnostic sample of 31 patients with severe mental illness, namely schizophrenia (n = 15) or major depression (n = 16), in relation to their polysomnographic sleep characteristics 6 (± 2.4) years earlier. In addition, cognitive performance at follow-up and clinical characteristics (i.e., severity of disorder-related symptoms and number of hospitalizations between baseline and follow-up) are assessed. Multiple regression analysis results in a model with slow-wave sleep (SWS) and number of hospitalizations as significant predictors accounting for 50% (R2 = 0.507; p <0.001) of the variance in social functioning. SWS remains a significant predictor of long-term social functioning throughout a series of refining analyses which also identify baseline functioning as an additional significant predictor, whereas diagnosis is non-significant. Also, the effect of SWS on social functioning is not mediated by number of hospitalizations as assessed by a bootstrapped mediation analysis. We thus conclude that duration of slow-wave sleep is a powerful predictor of long-term social outcome in psychiatric disorders. Also, we discuss the relevance of verbal memory, symptom severity, and diagnostic category for social functioning. Future studies should test this finding by using a prospective design, a bigger sample, optimized predictor variables, and a more diverse set of diagnoses. Moreover, it should be explored whether or not treating sleep disturbances in psychiatric illnesses independently improves long-term social functioning.

Does Sleep Help Prevent Forgetting Rewarded Memory Representations in Children and Adults?

Sleep fosters the consolidation of rewarded memory representations in adults. However, sleep and its memory-supporting functions change through healthy development, and it is unclear whether sleep benefits the consolidation of rewarded memory representations in children as it does in adults. Based on previous findings, we expected sleep to benefit the consolidation of rewarded memory representations in children more than it does in adults. For that reason, 16 children (7-11 years) and 20 adults (21-29 years) participated in this experiment. During the encoding session, participants were asked to learn the location of 18 object pairs. Thereafter, one-half of the object locations were allocated to a high-rewarded condition and the other half to a low-rewarded condition. In the sleep condition, the encoding session took place in the evening (for children 7-8 pm, for adults 8-9 pm). After a fixed retention interval of 12 h the retrieval session was conducted the next morning (for children 7-8 am, for adults 8-9 am). In the wake condition, the time schedule was the same but reversed: the encoding session started in the morning (for children 7-8 am, for adults 8-9 am), and retrieval took place in the evening (for children 7-8 pm, for adults 8-9 pm). Sleep/wake had no impact on the memory performance regarding the low-rewarded memory items. In contrast, wakefulness in comparison to sleep reduced the memory performance on high-rewarded memory items. The interaction between sleep/wake and the degree of reward on memory performance was only significant in children. These results show that 12 h of wakefulness can deteriorate the memory performance for high-rewarded representations, whereas sleep can prevent the forgetting of these rewarded representations. It is discussed whether ontogenetic changes in sleep may play a role in conserving relevant but fragile memory representation.

Romanogobio skywalkeri, a new gudgeon (Teleostei: Gobionidae) from the upper Mur River, Austria.

Romanogobio skywalkeri, new species, is described from the upper Mur River in the Austrian Danube drainage. It is related to R. banarescui from the Mediterranean basin. Romanogobio skywalkeri is distinguished from R. banarescui by lacking epithelial crests on the predorsal back, having 12-14 total pectoral-fin rays (vs. 10-11) and usually 8½ branched dorsal-fin rays (vs. 7½). It is distinguished from other Romanogobio species in the Danube drainage by having a very slender body; a moderately long barbel, extending slightly beyond the posterior eye margin; and no epithelial crests on the predorsal back. Romanogobio skywalkeri is distinguished by a minimum net divergence of 6.3% (uncorrected p-distance against R. banarescui) in the COI barcoding region from other European Romanogobio species. A key to the Romanogobio species of the Danube drainage is provided. Romanogobio banarescui from the Vardar drainage and R. carpathorossicus from the Danube drainage are treated as valid species.

Weakening self-control biases the emotional evaluation of appetitive cues.

Exerting self-control in a first task weakens self-control in a second completely unrelated task (ego-depletion). It has been proposed that ego-depletion increases approach motivation which would amplify positive emotions to appetitive cues. Here we investigated the effect of the depletion of cognitive self-control on the subsequent emotional evaluation of appetitive cues. Participants of the depletion group copied a text omitting frequent letters and thereby exerting self-control to inhibit automated writing habits. Participants of the control group just copied the text. In a subsequent task participants had to rate valence and arousal of their responses to neutral vs. positive pictures of humans, animals, food, or sceneries. Ego-depletion caused more positive valence ratings of neutral pictures and lower arousal ratings of positive pictures. The findings do not support the notion that ego-depletion increases approach motivation in general. Rather they suggest that-without a specific motivational context-depletion of cognitive self-control differentially alters the immediate emotional evaluation of appetitive cues.

Sleep-Dependent Consolidation of Rewarded Behavior Is Diminished in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and a Comorbid Disorder of Social Behavior.

Children suffering from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often also display impaired learning and memory. Previous research has documented aberrant reward processing in ADHD as well as impaired sleep-dependent consolidation of declarative memory. We investigated whether sleep also fosters the consolidation of behavior learned by probabilistic reward and whether ADHD patients with a comorbid disorder of social behavior show deficits in this memory domain, too. A group of 17 ADHD patients with comorbid disorders of social behavior aged 8-12 years and healthy controls matched for age, IQ, and handedness took part in the experiment. During the encoding task, children worked on a probabilistic learning task acquiring behavioral preferences for stimuli rewarded most often. After a 12-hr retention interval of either sleep at night or wakefulness during the day, a reversal task was presented where the contingencies were reversed. Consolidation of rewarded behavior is indicated by greater resistance to reversal learning. We found that healthy children consolidate rewarded behavior better during a night of sleep than during a day awake and that the sleep-dependent consolidation of rewarded behavior by trend correlates with non-REM sleep but not with REM sleep. In contrast, children with ADHD and comorbid disorders of social behavior do not show sleep-dependent consolidation of rewarded behavior. Moreover, their consolidation of rewarded behavior does not correlate with sleep. The results indicate that dysfunctional sleep in children suffering from ADHD and disorders of social behavior might be a crucial factor in the consolidation of behavior learned by reward.

Memory consolidation of socially relevant stimuli during sleep in healthy children and children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: What you can see in their eyes.

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) display deficits in sleep-dependent memory consolidation, and being comorbid with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), results in deficits in face processing. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of sleep in recognizing faces in children with ADHD+ODD. Sixteen healthy children and 16 children diagnosed with ADHD+ODD participated in a sleep and a wake condition. During encoding (sleep condition at 8p.m.; wake condition at 8a.m.) pictures of faces were rated according to their emotional content; the retrieval session (12h after encoding session) contained a recognition task including pupillometry. Pupillometry and behavioral data revealed that healthy children benefited from sleep compared to wake with respect to face picture recognition; in contrast recognition performance in patients with ADHD+ODD was not improved after sleep compared to wake. It is discussed whether in patients with ADHD+ODD social stimuli are preferentially consolidated during daytime.

Melatonin Secretion during a Short Nap Fosters Subsequent Feedback Learning.

Sleep helps to protect and renew hippocampus-dependent declarative learning. Less is known about forms of learning that mainly engage the dopaminergic reward system. Animal studies showed that exogenous melatonin modulates the responses of the dopaminergic reward system and acts as a neuroprotectant promoting memory. In humans, melatonin is mainly secreted in darkness during evening hours supporting sleep. In this study, we investigate the effects of a short period of daytime sleep (nap) and endogenous melatonin on reward learning. Twenty-seven healthy, adult students took part in an experiment, either taking a 90-min afternoon nap or watching videos (within-subject design). Before and after the sleep vs. wake interval, saliva melatonin levels and reward learning were measured, and in the nap condition, a polysomnogram was obtained. Reward learning was assessed using a two-alternative probabilistic reinforcement-learning task. Sleep itself and subjective arousal or valence had no significant effects on reward learning. However, this study showed for the first time that an afternoon nap can elicit a small but significant melatonin response in about 41% of the participants and that the magnitude of the melatonin response predicts subsequent reward learning. Only in melatonin responders did a short nap improve reward learning. The difference between melatonin-responders and non-responders occurred very early during learning indicating that melatonin might have improved working memory rather than reward learning. Future studies should use paradigms differentiating working memory and reward learning to clarify which aspect of human feedback learning might profit from melatonin.

Chemosensory processing in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

BACKGROUND: In attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) not only deficits in dopamine-related cognitive functioning have been found but also a lower dopamine-sensitive olfactory threshold. The aim of the present study was to proof that only olfactory but not trigeminal sensitivity is increased in ADHD. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to show increased olfactory bulb (OB) volume- a structure which is strongly shaped by olfactory performance through the mechanism of neuroplasticity (e.g. synaptogenesis). To elucidate whether cortical mechanisms are involved in altered olfaction in ADHD, functional MRI (fMRI) was introduced. METHODS: A total of 18 boys with ADHD and 17 healthy controls (aged 7-12) were included in the study. Olfactory as well as trigeminal detection thresholds were examined. OB sizes were measured by means of structural MRI and an analysis of effective functional (fMRI) coupling of primary olfactory cortex was conducted. The frontal piriform cortex (fPIR) was chosen as seed region because of its importance in processing both trigeminal and olfactory stimuli as well as having profound influence on inner OB-signaling. RESULTS: Increased olfactory sensitivity as well as an increase in OB volume was found in ADHD. There were no group differences in sensitivity towards a trigeminal stimulus. Compared to healthy controls, the fPIR in ADHD was more positively coupled with structures belonging to the salience network during olfactory and, to a lesser extent, during trigeminal stimulation. CONCLUSIONS: Olfactory functioning is superior in subjects with ADHD. The observed increase in OB volume may relate to higher olfactory sensitivity in terms of neuroplasticity. During the processing of chemosensory stimuli, the primary olfactory cortex in ADHD is differently coupled to higher cortical structures which might indicate an altered top-down influence on OB structure and function.

Sleep Supports Memory of Odors in Adults but Not in Children.

Sleep supports the consolidation of declarative memory in children and adults. However, it is unclear whether sleep improves odor memory in children as well as adults. Thirty healthy children (mean age of 10.6, ranging from 8-12 yrs.) and 30 healthy adults (mean age of 25.4, ranging from 20-30 yrs.) participated in an incidental odor recognition paradigm. While learning of 10 target odorants took place in the evening and retrieval (10 target and 10 distractor odorants) the next morning in the sleep groups (adults: n = 15, children: n = 15), the time schedule was vice versa in the wake groups (n = 15 each). During encoding, adults rated odors as being more familiar. After the retention interval, adult participants of the sleep group recognized odors better than adults in the wake group. While children in the wake group showed memory performance comparable to the adult wake group, the children sleep group performed worse than adult and children wake groups. Correlations between memory performance and familiarity ratings during encoding indicate that pre-experiences might be critical in determining whether sleep improves or worsens memory consolidation.

The effect of selective REM-sleep deprivation on the consolidation and affective evaluation of emotional memories.

Emotion boosts the consolidation of events in the declarative memory system. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is believed to foster the memory consolidation of emotional events. On the other hand, REM sleep is assumed to reduce the emotional tone of the memory. Here, we investigated the effect of selective REM-sleep deprivation, SWS deprivation, or wake on the affective evaluation and consolidation of emotional and neutral pictures. Prior to an 9-h retention interval, sixty-two healthy participants (23.5 ± 2.5 years, 32 female, 30 male) learned and rated their affect to 80 neutral and 80 emotionally negative pictures. Despite rigorous deprivation of REM sleep or SWS, the residual sleep fostered the consolidation of neutral and negative pictures. Furthermore, emotional arousal helped to memorize the pictures. The better consolidation of negative pictures compared to neutral ones was most pronounced in the SWS-deprived group where a normal amount of REM sleep was present. This emotional memory bias correlated with REM sleep only in the SWS-deprived group. Furthermore, emotional arousal to the pictures decreased over time, but neither sleep nor wake had any differential effect. Neither the comparison of the affective ratings (arousal, valence) during encoding and recognition, nor the affective ratings of the recognized targets and rejected distractors supported the hypothesis that REM sleep dampens the emotional reaction to remembered stimuli. The data suggest that REM sleep fosters the consolidation of emotional memories but has no effect on the affective evaluation of the remembered contents.

Early Gamma-Band Activity During Interference Predicts Working Memory Distractibility in ADHD.

OBJECTIVES: Patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) display deficits in working memory (WM) and enhanced distractibility. METHODS: Evoked gamma-band response (GBR) occurs already 50 ms after stimulus onset and is modulated by attention. 16 boys with ADHD and 20 healthy controls (10-14 years) completed a WM task with distraction. RESULTS: Occipitally evoked 40 Hz-GBR was higher during distraction in ADHD than controls. GBR correlated negatively with interference control. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that ADHD patients are disturbed by interference on an early level of perception.

Transcranial oscillatory direct current stimulation during sleep improves declarative memory consolidation in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to a level comparable to healthy controls.

BACKGROUND: Slow oscillations (<1 Hz) during slow wave sleep (SWS) promote the consolidation of declarative memory. Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been shown to display deficits in sleep-dependent consolidation of declarative memory supposedly due to dysfunctional slow brain rhythms during SWS. OBJECTIVE: Using transcranial oscillating direct current stimulation (toDCS) at 0.75 Hz, we investigated whether an externally triggered increase in slow oscillations during early SWS elevates memory performance in children with ADHD. METHODS: 12 children with ADHD underwent a toDCS and a sham condition in a double-blind crossover study design conducted in a sleep laboratory. Memory was tested using a 2D object-location task. In addition, 12 healthy children performed the same memory task in their home environment. RESULTS: Stimulation enhanced slow oscillation power in children with ADHD and boosted memory performance to the same level as in healthy children. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that increasing slow oscillation power during sleep by toDCS can alleviate declarative memory deficits in children with ADHD.

Selective REM-sleep deprivation does not diminish emotional memory consolidation in young healthy subjects.

Sleep enhances memory consolidation and it has been hypothesized that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in particular facilitates the consolidation of emotional memory. The aim of this study was to investigate this hypothesis using selective REM-sleep deprivation. We used a recognition memory task in which participants were shown negative and neutral pictures. Participants (N=29 healthy medical students) were separated into two groups (undisturbed sleep and selective REM-sleep deprived). Both groups also worked on the memory task in a wake condition. Recognition accuracy was significantly better for negative than for neutral stimuli and better after the sleep than the wake condition. There was, however, no difference in the recognition accuracy (neutral and emotional) between the groups. In summary, our data suggest that REM-sleep deprivation was successful and that the resulting reduction of REM-sleep had no influence on memory consolidation whatsoever.

Sleep promotes consolidation of emotional memory in healthy children but not in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Fronto-limbic brain activity during sleep is believed to support the consolidation of emotional memories in healthy adults. Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is accompanied by emotional deficits coincidently caused by dysfunctional interplay of fronto-limbic circuits. This study aimed to examine the role of sleep in the consolidation of emotional memory in ADHD in the context of healthy development. 16 children with ADHD, 16 healthy children, and 20 healthy adults participated in this study. Participants completed an emotional picture recognition paradigm in sleep and wake control conditions. Each condition had an immediate (baseline) and delayed (target) retrieval session. The emotional memory bias was baseline-corrected, and groups were compared in terms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation (sleep vs. wake). We observed an increased sleep-dependent emotional memory bias in healthy children compared to children with ADHD and healthy adults. Frontal oscillatory EEG activity (slow oscillations, theta) during sleep correlated negatively with emotional memory performance in children with ADHD. When combining data of healthy children and adults, correlation coefficients were positive and differed from those in children with ADHD. Since children displayed a higher frontal EEG activity than adults these data indicate a decline in sleep-related consolidation of emotional memory in healthy development. In addition, it is suggested that deficits in sleep-related selection between emotional and non-emotional memories in ADHD exacerbate emotional problems during daytime as they are often reported in ADHD.