University of Michigan research reveals that sleep enhances memory formation through neuron activation, while sleep deprivation significantly impairs this process, affecting long-term memory retention.Two University of Michigan studies show that sleep is essential for memory because it allows specific neurons to reactivate and replay experiences. Sleep deprivation disrupts this process, leading to impaired memory retention.
Researchers have been intrigued by how synchronous the ripples are and how far they travel, seemingly to spread information from one part of the brain to another.For the study, the team measured a rat’s brain activity during sleep, after the rat completed a new maze. The method allows them to visualize the plasticity or representational drift of the neurons in real-time.
They discovered that the firing patterns of neurons involved in reactivating and replaying the maze experience were higher during sleep compared to during sleep deprivation. When sleep-deprived rats were able to catch up on sleep, he added, while the reactivation rebounded slightly, it never matched that of rats who slept normally. Furthermore, replay was similarly impaired but was not recovered when lost sleep was regained.