Sleep is often sacrificed in order to study for tests. However, sleep deprivation has been seen to negatively affect memory. Now, scientists have discovered a potential method of aiding memory retrieval that is affected because of sleep deprivation.
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Sleep Deprivation Affects Ability to Recall
SciTechDaily reports that neuroscientist Robber Havekes from the University Groningen has discovered how sleep deprivation hinders the recall of information, not the retention. The team of Havekers utilized optogenetics and the roflumilast medication to enable access to knowledge hidden due to sleep deprivation. Their study was included in the Current Biology publication.
Havekes and his team have been looking into how sleep deprivation impacts memory and its corresponding processes. He says that they focused on finding methods of supporting these processes amidst periods of sleep deprivation.
In their study, the team looked into this amnesia linked to sleep deprivation directly resulting from information loss or was simply due to difficulties in recalling.
To dig deeper, the research team took an optogenetic approach to things, wherein they utilized genetic methodologies to make channelrhodopsin, a protein that is sensitive to light, to selectively produce across neurons that get activated when learning. Recalling the particular experience was enabled by shining light onto the specific cells. Havekes explained how,. in their previous studies, they applied such an approach to hippocampus neurons. The hippocampus is the brain region that stores factual and spatial knowledge.
The genetically modified mice were first tasked to conduct a spatial learning activity wherein they needed to learn the specific location of different objects. Such a process greatly depended on hippocampus neurons.
After a few days, the mice performed the same task but with a slight twist. For this task, one particular object was placed in a new location. The mice that lacked sleep prior to the first session were not able to pick up these spatial chances. This suggested that the mice were incapable of recalling where the objects were originally placed.
However, after their hippocampal neurons were reactivated, the mice indeed remembered the original spots. Such findings reveal that the information was kept within the hippocampus amidst sleep deprivation. However, it required stimulation in order to be retrieved.
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Big Think reports that the optogenetic reactivation or asthma medication treatment restored the previously hidden memory of the location around eight days after learning the information and after being sleep deprived. A combination of both resulted in memory restoration that lasted longer.
SciTechDaily reports that roflumilast already has the clinical go-signal and has been seen to move into the brain. Hence, such findings reveal opportunities for testing whether the drug can be used to help retrieve lost memories. It also reveals possibilities of memory stimulation within aging-related memory issues or early Alzheimer's.
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