4 SPRING 2025 NO.92 / THOUGHT LEADERSHIP BRIEF Read all HKUST IEMS Thought Leadership Briefs at http://iems.ust.hk/tlb T: (852) 3469 2215 E: iems@ust.hk W: http://iems.ust.hk A: Lo Ka Chung Building, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon Prof. Quentin Zhen Qin is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Division of Humanities, and Associate Director of Center for Chinese Linguistics. Prior to joining HKUST in 2020, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Research Center for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. Qin’s current research uses psycholinguistic methods to examine how lexical tones in Chinese languages are perceptually learned and consolidated by secondlanguage learners over the lifespan. CONCLUSION These findings reveal that younger adults could effectively consolidate the novel words learned during training after a period of overnight sleep. In contrast, older adults undergoing the same training produced lower levels of accuracy in word recall, highlighting an age-related deficit in sleep-mediated memory consolidation. However, older adults could successfully consolidate novel words when their training was sufficiently lengthened. We highlight the importance of sleep hygiene in older adults and in assisting them in developing healthy sleep habits. Future investments should focus on sleep quality by raising public awareness through public and social platforms. These findings also have implications for language learning, which may contribute to alleviating the healthcare burden associated with age-related cognitive and sleep decline amongst the older Chinese-speaking population. We recommend an intervention program that combines a reasonable length of training and healthy sleep habits as a valuable strategy to optimize successful learning in the ageing population. Furthermore, an anticipated rise in dementia cases in China emphasises the urgent need for support from artificial intelligence (AI). In the long term, we argue that it is essential to integrate AIbased language learning programs into development plans to foster brain plasticity in older adults. This initiative would align with the vision of developing China's Great Bay Area as a “smart-ageing city”. With Support from
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDk5Njg=