When presented with novel but semantically related elements after learning verbal material, healthy participants tend to endorse these items as previously learned. This reflects the normal integration and association of novel verbal information into long-term memory. How obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) negatively impacts verbal memory performance, and whether deficits are reversible following positive airway pressure (PAP) treatment, remain elusive. We investigated immediate and delayed OSA- and PAP treatment-related effects on verbal memory integration, using a false memory paradigm. Twenty-three patients with OSA learned lists of words semantically related to target non-presented words (1) at baseline after a polysomnography diagnosis night, (2) after a consecutive polysomnography night under PAP titration, and (3) after three months of compliant PAP treatment. At each session, participants learned 10 different lists of words, each list comprising 15 semantically related items. They had then to recognize 15 minutes later (after an intermediate vigilance task) previously learned words within a list including studied words (learned), unstudied but semantically related items (lures), and non-related unstudied items (controls). Sleep quality and fatigue questionnaires, and psychomotor vigilance tests (PVT) were administered at each session. PAP treatment led to OSA remission and improvement in objective and subjective sleep quality. Crucially, recognition of learned and lure words increased after the first night under treatment and remained stable three months later, suggesting successful memory integration and restoration of semantic processes. No treatment-related outcome was found on PVT performance. OSA exerts a detrimental but PAP-reversible effect on verbal learning and semantic memory integration mechanisms underlying the acquisition of novel memory representations.

中文翻译：

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阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停中可逆的言语记忆整合缺陷。

在学习了口头材料之后，当呈现出新颖但与语义相关的元素时，健康的参与者会倾向于认可这些项目，如先前所学。这反映了新的言语信息到长期记忆的正常整合和关联。阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停（OSA）如何对口语记忆表现产生负面影响，以及气道正压（PAP）治疗后是否可逆转缺陷仍不清楚。我们使用错误的记忆范例研究了言语记忆整合的即时和延迟OSA和PAP治疗相关的影响。23例OSA患者在多导睡眠图诊断之夜后的基线时学习了与目标非呈现单词在语义上相关的单词列表，（1）在PAP滴定下连续进行多导睡眠图之夜后，（2）（3）经过3个月的PAP依从性治疗。在每个会话中，参与者学习了10个不同的单词列表，每个列表包含15个与语义相关的项目。然后，他们必须在15分钟后（在一个中间的警戒任务之后）识别出列表中以前学习过的单词，这些单词包括学习过的单词（已学习），未学习但与语义相关的项目（单词）和无关的未学习项目（控件）。每次会议均进行睡眠质量和疲劳问卷调查，以及心理运动警惕性测试（PVT）。PAP治疗可缓解OSA，并改善客观和主观睡眠质量。至关重要的是，在治疗的第一个晚上之后，对学识和诱饵单词的识别增加，并在三个月后保持稳定，这表明成功进行了记忆整合和语义过程的恢复。在PVT表现上未发现与治疗有关的结局。OSA对获得新的记忆表示形式的语言学习和语义记忆整合机制产生有害但PAP可逆的作用。