Sleep may help clear brain for learning
Posted on: Friday, 3 April 2009, 14:36 CDT
Sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning, U.S. researchers said.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said neurologists believe creation of new synapses is one key way the brain encodes memories and learning.
There are a number of reasons why the brain can't indefinitely add synapses, including the finite spatial constraints of the skull,
senior author Paul Shaw of Washington University School of Medicine said in a statement.
We were able to track the creation of new synapses in fruit flies during learning experiences and to show that sleep pushed that number back down.
Many aspects of fly sleep are similar to human sleep. The study, published in the journal Science, used flies genetically altered to make it possible to track the development of new synapses -- the junctures at which brain cells communicate.
The biggest surprise was that out of 200,000 fly brain cells, only 16 were required for the formation of new memories,
first author Jeffrey Donlea, a graduate student, said. These 16 cells are part of the circadian circuitry that let the fly brain perform certain behaviors at particular times of day.
Source: United Press International
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