Introducing the brain: how sleep affects memory (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, June 03, 2023, 19:15 (329 days ago) @ David Turell

New research:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-brain-memory-clues.html

"As events occur during the day, they are recorded in a brain area called the hippocampus. Then, during sleep, the brain consolidates and communicates those memories to a different region called the neocortex, where they are stored long-term. Once stored, the memories are more stable and able to be retrieved later.

"'This (study) helps clarify how that process might happen," she said.

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"For this study, published in Nature Neuroscience, he and collaborators, including Maya Geva-Sagiv and Yuval Nir, tracked the brain activity of these patients during the deepest part of sleep, when memories are believed to be consolidated and stored. Because the brain sends waves of different frequencies during this time, Fried decided to stimulate the relevant areas in a synchronized fashion ‒ which he likened to a conductor leading an orchestra.

"Before they went to sleep, volunteers were shown paired pictures of well known celebrities and animals. When shown images the next morning, those who received the synchronized signals during sleep were better able to remember which images they had seen the night before and which were new images that they hadn't seen.

"The participants feel nothing from the stimulation.

"The brain replays events during sleep, but not in exactly the same way as they occurred that day. "It has to be more efficient than that," Fried said.

"Sleep deprivation causes brain cells to fire more slowly, he said, explaining why daytime function falls off with lack of sleep.

"People with memory-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's often have disrupted sleep, Fried said, "playing a vicious cycle," which makes the disease worse.

"Fried hopes by better understanding the relationship between sleep and memory, scientists could one day help people with memory disorders.

"He compared the effect of the stimulation to a hearing aid that amplifies sound to help people hear. "In principle, it would be interesting if you could amplify memory," he said.

"Theoretically, a similar approach might also be used to identify the circuit in the brain that encodes a terrible memory ‒ such as from war or abuse ‒ and use stimulation to erase or recode that memory."

Comment: a good night's sleep always feels good. It is obvious sleep is more important than feeling good. The brain needs a rest period, but it is logical to look for active processes during sleep and memory consolidation is shown in this study.