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Lose Sleep, Fail To Form Memory
Rambo Tribble writes: 'A research team of Chinese and American scientists claim to have witnessed the mechanism by which sleep contributes to the formation of memories. Using advanced microscopy, the researchers witnessed synapses being formed in the brain of sleeping mice recently exposed to a learning task (abstract). They compared this to similarly tasked mice, that were subsequently sleep-deprived. The sleeping mice showed a marked increase in the formation of new synapses. As one researcher explained, "We thought sleep helped, but it could have been other causes, and we show it really helps to make connections and that in sleep the brain is not quiet, it is replaying what happened during the day and it seems quite important for making the connections.'''
This study proves what I've been saying all along: Sleep is key. A lot of my buddies in college find it strange that I choose to sleep instead of cramming all night, and then are perplexed when I would get higher grades.
But 12 hours of sleep over the last 3 nights isn't going to help.
All the transactions of a session is all kept in local cache and volatile memory. Finally it has to shut all external connections off, prune, collate, compile, squash and transcribe the local cache into more permanent record. Wait, am I describing the brain? Or our wonderful IT shutting off our git repo and clearcase server everyday between 3 AM and 8 AM?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
... formed in the dreams of mice? And, if mice dream, do they dream of flying?
At least it would have been if I had gotten enough sleep and remembered to post earlier.
So perhaps these senior moments I've been having are not so much from being over the hill as from the fact that as I've gotten older I get less sleep overnight?
How were the mice sleep deprived?
Stress has been linked to poor memory for decades. Was it that stress has caused poor sleep quality and poor memory, or is it that sleep deprivation stressed the mice which caused poor memory, or both?
It's amazing how little sleep you can get and not die.
And for about a month after both of my kids were born, I really don't remember much at all.
Not in my dreams. I did not discover a huge new type of shark yesterday nor did I end up in Brazil selling a guy a bunch of old US yellowpages for $50.
That explains a lot of code I've read over the years.....
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
So getting less sleep I can become more popular? Because, seriously, from my interactions in this world it seems that intelligent and helpful thoughts are actively discouraged. Maybe it's better to be dumb and happy.
If your goal is popularity, then go ahead and pander. If your goal is the betterment of yourself then find friends that don't discourage your growth and value the quality over quantity.
Here's the full paper in PDF format: http://expirebox.com/download/...
soylentnews.org
Working 2-3 full time jobs, going to school, etc. I really have almost no recollection of anything in my 20s. I have the paystubs, etc to tell me what I was doing, but actual memories? Nope. Three to four hours of sleep a night. It sucks.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
My schedule changed monthly: days working Saturday through Tuesday, another day shift then PM's followed by three PM's and two night shifts, and then a month of nights. My last night shift ended on a Wednesday at 0600 and I returned to day shift the next Saturday at 0600. Only one employee was on duty over 90% of the time. I was a mental wreck for years from sleeping four hours at a time and my diet suffered as well.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
These aren't "histological details". Histology is done on dead tissue, whereas these researchers are imaging neurons in living animals and are seeing cells sprout new connections when animals learn. This was suspected, but it's quite another thing to see it happening before your eyes. The whole point of science is to test things you suspect; I don't understand your problem with this notion.
It's quite possible and very productive to study "complex mind processes" using in vivo imaging and elecrophysiology techniques. These approaches won't tell you what it feels like for the subject to perceive the world, for that you need literature, poetry, and art, but it's doing a pretty good job in helping us understand the mechanics through which the brain deconstructs sensory information and how it uses this information to make decisions and create memories.
soylentnews.org
Marcel Proust was obsessed with all of the tiniest memories possible, as well as sleep. I guess now there is an explanation for the correlation
Let us rest Dungeon Master !!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...
At the end of the article: "Our data suggest that neuronal reactivation during sleep is quite important for growing specific connections within the motor cortex," Dr. Gan adds.
That suggests that the sleep deprived mice might have created stronger connections if they had a second session on the treadmill while the others were sleeping. As I understand it the study provides physical evidence that current theories about how memories form are not false. Those theories include replaying neuron firing patterns during sleep. It's the 'physical evidence' that's important here from what I gather. The 'sleep helps with memory' is more of a headline.
I'm curious how this translate to humans and abstract thought. For me there seems to be a big difference between remembering how to move your arm and learning algebra.