From Brain Waves to Heartbeats

This event is part of a series of Psychology seminars that regularly occurs during the Autumn and Spring terms.

Sleep is essential for memory, emotional regulation, and cognitive health, yet it is often studied primarily as a brain-based phenomenon.

In this talk, Pin-Chun Chen will argue that sleep is fundamentally a whole-body process, shaped by dynamic interactions between the brain and the autonomic nervous system. She will show how coordinated brain rhythms and cardiac signals during sleep support different domains of memory, and how ageing disrupts these brain–body dynamics, with important implications for cognitive decline.

Finally, she will outline how monitoring and experimentally modulating sleep-dependent brain–body synchrony may offer new translational avenues for promoting cognitive resilience across the lifespan.