A new study confirms that sleep consolidates the process of learning Because the brain, during non-Rem sleep, “follows” the traces just stored. The study, published on Journal of Neurosciencemakes us discover the role of Sleep spokenrapid brain electric discharges present in light sleep: When we fall asleep after learning something new, as shown in the study, sleep spindles increase precisely in the brain areas that have been activated by learning that particular task. The work is added to the set of research that for years have suggested that i strategic sonnellini and the good night sleep They are very important for the consolidation of all types of memory, from that linked to facts and events to motor memory.
What he did and what the new study shows
The researchers of theHarvard Medical School they taught 25 adults a type a sequence of keyswho call them Motor Sequece Task. Later they recorded the traces of theelectroencephalogram and those of the magnetencephalographya neuroimaging technique that measures the magnetic fields produced by brain activity: the more active an area is, the more there will be electrical activity and consequently the magnetic field at that point will be high.
After learning the sequence of keys, during the nursing the sleep spindles increased, especially in correspondence with the motor areas previously stimulated by learning itself. And the subjects in which there was a greater increase of electrical activity, then had a improvement on the beating speed on awakening. This means that The greater the activity of sleep spindles, the better the learned task will be remembered.
What are sleep spindles and why they affect memory
Sleep spindles are gusts of electrical activity that are detected on the electroencephalogram (with a characteristic “melted” form) as a close series of waves between 11 and 16 Hz of frequencywhich last from the fraction of second a few seconds to the maximum. The spindles are manifested in stages 2 of sleep, also called non-rees, approximately 70-90 minutes after falling asleep. This means that the shorter napper of thirty minutes, although very useful to refresh the attention and rest the brain, are not very useful for consolidating learning. Better a longer nap60-90 minutes.
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These “shocks” synchronize distant neurons among them, favoring communication with thehippocampusan important center of memory, and consolidating the connections between the areas of the bark cerebral and the thalamus. The rhythmic discharges of the neurons associated with the events of spindle they are therefore crucial in strengthen synaptic connections in the brain and stimulate the centers of memory.
What types of memory benefit from sleep
The short answer is yes. Sleep spindles, in fact, constitute a physiological behavior so tied to the memory that you can understand the type of information that a person learned before going to sleep by studying the activity and the location of the spindles in his brain. For example, a greater number of mergers in the front-central region left is associated with the consolidation of the verbal memory, while the parietal spindles are linked to the consolidation of the visuo-spatial memory.
So, although it is necessary to deepen the aspects of this fascinating but complicated event, the researchers tell us that sleep spindles play a fundamental role on all types of memory, from that motor memory (the one linked to the movement of the body, as demonstrated by Harvard researchers) both on that declaration (remember facts and events).
