SLEEP AND HUMAN LIFE
Sleeping has many effects on our life. As Dang-Vu,
associate professor in the Department of Health,
Kinesiology and Applied Physiology and Concordia
University Research Chair in Sleep, Neuroimaging and
Cognitive Health, says, “We know that sleep is affecting
not only people’s daily lives but also their ability to
work, concentrate, and socialize.” Also, another research
made by Dang-Vu brings us closer to understanding how
learned information turns into reliable memories during
sleep.
‘The brain seems partially asleep while the person is
awake’
The researchers recently published the first brain imaging
study on idiopathic hypersomnia, reporting that when
hypersomniac patients are awake, their brain activity
shows patterns that resemble what normal sleepers
experience when they are sleeping.
How does declarative information like facts and faces
get stored after they have been learned?
It has to do with brainwaves. Using medical imaging
machines, electroencephalography, and functional
magnetic resonance imaging, Dang-Vu was able to
assess brain activity related to
these waves. Specifically, ones
called sleep spindles, which are
fast bursts of electrical activity
produced by neurons mainly
during Stage 2 sleep, prior to
deep sleep. “It’s hypothesized
that sleep spindles play an important role in transferring
information from the hippocampus to the neo-cortex,”
Dang-Vu says. “This has the effect of increasing the
strength of memories.”
References
Concordia University. (2019, May 15). Memories
are strengthened via brainwaves produced during
sleep, a new study shows: Researchers use medical
imaging to map areas involved in recalling learned
information while we slumber. ScienceDaily.
Retrieved May 19, 2019, from www.sciencedaily.
com/releases/2019/05/190515131750.htm
Ömer Fatih ÖZSAYGIN
9 - B
THE CLAPPER 2018 - 2019
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