Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

Affective neural processing during sleep correlates with depression symptoms

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Eitan Schechtman¹, Xuanyi Lin², Matthew Cho¹, Ken Paller²; ¹University of California Irvine, ²Northwestern University

During sleep, brain networks supporting cognitive functions are activated, leading to improved cognitive performance. We hypothesize that networks involved in affective processing are likewise active during sleep, and that their activity governs mental well-being in health and disease. We investigated this process using multivariate EEG decoding across wake and sleep. We further examine the relationship between activation patterns during sleep and individual differences in depression symptoms as assessed by standardized questionnaires. EEG was recorded from 64 channels in 52 healthy participants during an emotional-picture-viewing task (positive vs negative images) and during a subsequent nap. Using time-domain decoding analyses, we show that affective activation during sleep and restful wake correlated with depression symptoms, measured using Beck’s Depression Index (BDI-II). These findings suggest that the spontaneous activation of affective networks during sleep reflects stable inter-individual differences in affective traits. This study offers insight into the neural mechanisms underlying affective processing during sleep and wakeful rest, with implications for how this implicit processing impacts psychological well-being, and highlights the potential of combining EEG decoding with psychological assessments to better understand individual differences in sleep-related affective processing. Taken together, these results provide evidence that spontaneous affective processing during sleep contributes to depression symptoms, with potential implications for identifying sleep-related biomarkers of affective disorders

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions