Chronic jet lag alters the brain in ways that cause memory and learning problems long after one’s return to a regular 24-hour schedule, according to research findings.
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hippocampus
Dec
21
2010
Jet lagged and forgetful? It’s no coincidence
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Dec
18
2010
Night light may cause depression
Exposure to even dim light at night is enough to cause physical changes in the brains of hamsters that may be associated with depression, a recently released study shows. Researchers found that female Siberian hamsters exposed to dim light every night for eight weeks showed significant changes in a part of the brain called the [...]
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Oct
30
2009
University of Penn researchers find way to reverse cognitive impairment caused by sleep deprivation
A research collaboration led by biologists and neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania has found a molecular pathway in the brain that is the cause of cognitive impairment due to sleep deprivation.
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Experts have long suspected that part of the process of turning fleeting short-term memories into lasting long-term memories occurs during sleep. Now, researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have shown that mice prevented from “replaying” their waking experiences while asleep do not remember them as well as mice who are able to perform this function.
The work, which has a profound implication in the century-old search for the purpose of sleep, will be reported in the June 25, 2009 issue of Neuron.
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Research on the sleeping brain has revealed some fascinating stage-dependent interactions between areas involved in formation and storage of long term memories. The study, published by in the the journal Neuron, may also provide a framework for further understanding the role of sleep in memory.
Mammalian sleep occurs in two discrete stages, slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. One of the many ways in which SWS and REM sleep differ is in the level of synchronous firing in the hippocampus. Previous research has suggested that coordinated activity between the hippocampus?a brain area critical for memory formation where long-term memories are stored?—?may be critical for memory formation.
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Research on the sleeping brain has revealed some fascinating stage-dependent interactions between areas involved in formation and storage of long term memories. The study may also provide a framework for further understanding the role of sleep in memory.
Mammalian sleep occurs in two discrete stages, slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep. One of the many ways in which SWS and REM sleep differ is in the level of synchronous firing in the hippocampus.
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