CV

Click Here for Sara Mednick’s Curriculim Vitae

Funding Sources

Ongoing

2007-2012 Principal Investigator: K01 Career Development Award (K01MH080992 – 01) Understanding memory consolidation by studying pharmacologically enhanced naps.

The Career award enabled me to add pharmacological mechanisms to my set of tools for exploring sleep-dependent memory consolidation. The goal of this grant is to understand the pharmacological basis for sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Over five years, I will be running three studies, 1) a dose response nap study, 2) a nap study with two optimal doses of drugs that enhance SWS and stage two sleep, examining the effect of pharmacologically enhanced naps on three different memory domains, and 3) an fMRI study examining the brain mechanisms of pharmacological manipulation of sleep stages on memory consolidation.

2007-2012 Jazz Pharmaceuticals Investigator initiated study This grant supported my K01 with free sodium oxybate and placebo

Completed

2008-2009 Academic Senate Award The effects of illumination on nap architecture The goal of this study is to examine whether daytime sleep is affected by light using light emitting goggles of across a wide range of intensities. We found the unlike nighttime sleep, illumination does not interfere with sleep onset or sleep architecture in a daytime nap.

2006 – 2007 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Comparing the effects of Modafinil, Napping and Caffeine on perceptual learning and deterioration.

This study compared caffeine, modafinil, placebo and sleep on three different forms of memory: perception, motor, and verbal declarative. We found discrete enhancements and decreases in performance in the drug and sleep conditions, which suggests that different underlying mechanisms support these different memory domains.

2003 – 2006 Recipient: National Research Service Award, (NIH/NEI # F32 EY015564-01) Neural Basis of Sleep-Dependent Learning & Deterioration This NRSA used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural correlates of perceptual learning and deterioration. We mapped the retinotopic areas of visual cortex and trained people on the texture discrimination task multiple times in one day. Subjects who napped showed no change in performance or change in BOLD activity.

Non-nappers, however, showed significant decreases in performance that was correlated with decreases in BOLD activation in primary visual cortex. Thus, we showed the direct relationship between nap-dependent performance maintenance and brain activity.