ScienceDaily (Oct. 25,
2012) — Everyone feels refreshed after a good night's sleep, but sleep
does more than just rejuvenate, it can also consolidate memories.
"The rapid eye movement
form of sleep and slow wave sleep are involved in cognitive forms of memory
such as learning motor skills and consciously accessible memory," explains
Randolf Menzel from the Freie Universtät Berlin, Germany.
According to Menzel, the
concept that something during sleep reactivates a memory for consolidation is a
basic theory in sleep research. However, the human brain is far too complex to
begin dissecting the intricate neurocircuits that underpin our memories, which
is why Menzel has spent the last four decades working with honey bees: they are
easy to train, well motivated and it is possible to identify the miniaturised circuits
that control specific behaviours in their tiny brains. Intrigued by the role of
sleep in memory consolidation and knowing that a bee is sleeping well when its
antennae are relaxed and collapsed down, Menzel decided to focus on the role of
sleep in one key memory characteristic: relearning.
They publish their discovery
that sleep derivation prevents bees from altering well-established memories
in The Journal of Experimental Biology.
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