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Jessica Payne, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. University of Arizona 
Profile
Dr. Payne’s research focuses on how sleep and stress influence human memory and psychological function.
After new information is encoded into memory, it continues to be processed and transformed by a process known as consolidation. This process solidifies memories, making them resistant to interference and decay, but emerging evidence suggests that it can also change memories in ways that make them more useful and adaptive. The questions driving this line of research are, “What happens to memories over time?” and “What are the mechanisms underlying memory solidification and memory change?” Dr. Payne uses two powerful tools to probe memory - sleep and stress. Both provide important mediums for targeting the consolidation process in humans. Dr. Payne combines behavioral, pharmacological and cognitive neuroscientific (EEG, fMRI) approaches to investigate these questions.
Another line of research examines important clinical questions, including how disturbances in sleep and stress influence memory consolidation in individuals with major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders such as PTSD, and how this, in turn, influences psychological functioning.
Representative publications:
+ Signifies that the author is a postdoctoral fellow
* Signifies that the author is a graduate student
o Signifies that the author is an undergraduate
Payne, J.D., Schacter, D.L., Tucker, M.A., Wamsley, E., oHuang, L., Walker, M.P., & Stickgold, R. (2009). The role of sleep in false memory formation. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 92, 327-334.
*Waring, J.D., Payne, J.D., Schacter, D.L. & Kensinger, E.A (2009). Impact of individual differences upon emotion induced memory trade-offs. Cognition & Emotion, DOI - 10.1080/02699930802618918.
Payne, J.D., and Walker, M.P (2009). Does delta sleep matter? Insomnia and its optimal management.
Payne, J.D., Stickgold, R., oSwanberg, K., & Kensinger, E.K. Sleep preferentially enhances memory for emotional components of scenes (2008). Psychological Science, 19(8), 781-788.
Payne, J.D., Ellenbogen, J.M., Walker, M.P., & Stickgold, R. (2008). The role of sleep in memory consolidation. In, Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference. Elsevier Press. Oxford UK.
Payne, J.D., Jackson, E.D., *Hoscheidt, S., Ryan, L., Jacobs, W.J. & Nadel, L. (2007). Stress administered prior to encoding impairs neutral but enhances emotional long-term episodic memories. Learning & Memory, 14, 861-868.
Ellenbogen, J.M., *Hu, P., Payne, J.D., Titone, D. & Walker, M.P. (2007). Human relational memory requires time and sleep. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 7723-7728.
Payne, J.D., Jackson, E.D., Ryan, L. *Hoscheidt, S., Jacobs, W.J., & Nadel, L. (2006). The impact of stress on memory for neutral vs. emotional aspects of episodic memory. Memory, 14(1), 1-16.
Jackson, E.D., Payne, J.D., Nadel, L. & Jacobs, W.J (2006). Stress differentially modulates fear conditioning in healthy men and women. Biological Psychiatry, 59, 516-522.
Payne, J.D., Britton, W.B., Bootzin, R.B., & Nadel, L. (2005). Beyond Acetylcholine: Next steps for sleep and memory research. Behavioural Brain Sciences, 28, 77.
Payne, J.D. & Nadel, L. (2004). Sleep, dreams and memory consolidation: The role of the stress hormone cortisol. Learning & Memory, 11, 671-678.
Payne, J.D., Nadel, L., Britton, W.B. & Jacobs, W.J. (2004). The biopsychology of trauma and memory. In Emotion and Memory, D. Reisberg and P. Hertel (Eds.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Payne, J.D., Nadel, L., Allen, J.J.B., Thomas, K.G.F. & Jacobs, W.J. (2002). The effects of experimentally induced stress on false recognition. Memory, 10, 1-6.
Nadel, L. & Payne, J.D. (2002). The relationship between episodic memory and context: Clues from memory errors made while under stress. Physiological Research, 9, 74-89.
If you are interested in more information or in joining Dr. Payne’s lab, please contact her at:
122-B Haggar Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone: (574) 631-1636
Email: jpayne7@nd.edu