- Research discovers brain circuit controlling memory consolidation
- Manipulating this circuit can prevent or enhance the memories you retain
- This could help find a route to therapy for people with sleep conditions
Shivali Best For Mailonline
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Anyone who has had a bad night’s sleep will know that the impact it can have on your ability to think clearly and remember things the following day.
But it appears that we may be able to improve our retrieval of memories, by simulating how our brains work during sleep.
New research has discovered the brain circuit that controls how certain memories are consolidated in the brain overnight.
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These findings could help find a route to therapy for people with sleep conditions, such as insomnia, who have impaired memory functions
Researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan have now shown how manipulating a specific brain circuit can prevent or enhance the memories you retain.
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Masanori Murayama, who led the study, said: ‘Our findings on sleep deprivation are particularly interesting from a clinical perspective. Patients who suffer from sleep disorders often have impaired memory functions.’
HOW MEMORIES LINK OVER TIME
Neuroscientists at UCLA have identified in mice how the brain links different memories over time.
While aging weakens these connections, the team devised a way for the middle-aged brain to reconnect separate memories.
Denise Cai, first author of the study, said: ‘In the real world, memories don’t happen in isolation. Our past experiences influence the creation of new memories and help us predict what to expect and make informed decisions in the future.’
The team tested in young and middle-aged mice whether the brain linked memories of experiences.
Their results showed that the brains of older mice did not connect two memories which suggests that aging weakens neurons’ ability to fully excite.
However, using a biological tool to excite neurons in the hippocampus – the memory center of the brain – the team were able to reverse the age-related inability to link memories.
The findings could be used to create a possible intervention for people suffering from age-related memory problems.
Previous studies have identified the phenomenon of memory consolidation during sleep, but this was the first study to identify the ‘top-down’ brain circuit involved.
‘Top-down’ processing is a system by which our brains make use of information that has already been brought into the brain by one or more of the sensory systems – in this case, touch.
These findings could help find a route to therapy for people with sleep conditions, such as insomnia.
Using mice, the researchers developed a task which assessed memory retention after normal sleep, and when sleep deprived.
Mice were shown two rooms with smooth walls, and then two rooms – one with smooth walls and one with textured walls.
Their results showed that if mice were given normal sleep between the two viewings, they were more likely to spend time in the textured room, showing that they remembered the smooth room and were not interested in it.
Conversely, when sleep deprived, the mice spent equal time in both rooms, suggesting they did not remember the smooth rooms from the first viewing.
Additionally, the researchers were able to show that memory consolidation happens in the first round of non-REM – the initial light phase – of sleep after the experience.
Masanori Murayama added: ‘Our findings suggest a route to therapy using transcortical magnetic or direct-current stimulation to top down cortical pathways to reactivate sleep-deprived neurons during non-REM sleep. Our next step is to test this in mouse models of sleep-disorders.’
Anyone who has had a bad night’s sleep will know that it can leave your memory feeling groggy the next day. But it appears that we may be able to improve our retrieval of memories, by simulating how our brains work during sleep
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