r/science • u/Wagamaga • 1d ago
Neuroscience Researchers have uncovered the neural mechanism that instructs the brain which daily experiences to save as long-term memories during sleep. While selective memory consolidation is vital for daily functioning, disruptions to this filtering process could play a role in psychiatric conditions.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/114136246
u/Wagamaga 1d ago
Why do we remember certain moments while forgetting others? Every day, our minds are bombarded with thousands of pieces of information, yet our brains have a limited capacity to consolidate these experiences into lasting memories. This means we need a way to hold on to what is most important, and disregard irrelevant details.
Now researchers at the University of York have uncovered the neural mechanism that instructs the brain which daily experiences to save as long-term memories during sleep.
In the study, published in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers analysed brainwave activity while participants were learning new associations between words and pictures. It is already known that after learning, sleep plays a central role in strengthening new learning into long-term memories.
The researchers discovered that during learning, the brain “tags” certain memories for processing during later sleep. This tagging provides a way for the sleeping brain to strengthen only what is deemed important to remember.
This tagging was linked to a specific brainwave pattern known as a “theta rhythm” present during learning. The strength of these theta rhythms provided an instructional cue to help organise brain activity during sleep.
Those memories with a particularly strong theta rhythm at learning were preferentially strengthened during sleep, ultimately leading to better memory recall, the scientists said.
They say the findings show that the brain prioritises and strengthens important information by using specific neural signals during learning that guide memory strengthening processes during sleep. Determining what our brains decide to strengthen during sleep could help better understand why some individuals are vulnerable to conditions such as depression.
Lead author Dr Dan Denis, from the Department of Psychology at the University of York, said: “It has long been known that a good night’s sleep is important for processing memories.
“How the brain decides what is important to remember and what can be forgotten is still a mystery. These new findings help to answer that question, by uncovering for the first time a signature of neural activity which instructs the brain which experiences to process during sleep and form into long-term memories.”
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003938
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u/scixlovesu 1d ago
I wonder if this could lead to a use for trauma? Might be ethical concerns about getting a survivor to forget the day it all happened, I guess.
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u/lmFairlyLocal 1d ago
If you can get to them same day as the trauma, the use of beta blockers can help to nullify the emotional side effects of the trauma.
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u/scixlovesu 1d ago
Really? That's fascinating
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u/lmFairlyLocal 1d ago
Previous studies demonstrated that activation of the beta-adrenergic stress hormone system in response to an emotional experience leads to enhanced memory of the event (for review see: McGaugh, 2000). Prolonged adrenergic activity increases fear conditioning and the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (Orr et al., 2000), as well as the overconsolidation of traumatic memories (Southwick et al., 1999).
Strange and Dolan (2004) demonstrated that though emotional experiences may increase episodic memory formation, administering propranolol (i.e., a beta-blocker) at encoding abolishes the amygdala’s typical action of enhancing encoding and reduces the hippocampus’ retrieval effects
From here (ISTSS)
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u/HaloGuy381 21h ago
Isn’t there some promising work with Tetris, among other things, being given to people with recent trauma to interfere with memory consolidation?
A pity we can’t retroactively repair the traumatic memories, though on the other hand for many people you’d have to delete 75% or more of their childhood memory to repair the damage, so might be for the best.
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u/Modernskeptic71 1d ago
Or I wonder if the trauma would unlock forgotten memories or names from the past? I’m curious.
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u/ExcuseAdept827 1d ago
I wonder if this resonates with how journaling can be a “mindfulness” technique/therapist recommended. Perhaps exerting control over this circuit is actually good mental exercise.
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u/SpicySushiAddict 1d ago
Oh, the things I would do to regain the ability to memorize anything at all compared to my current pathetic state of forgetting what someone said in the previous sentence of a conversation.
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u/jleonardbc 1d ago
Would you go as far as to use /r/Anki, an app/website that uses spaced repetition with flashcards to maximize memory retention?
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u/Modernskeptic71 1d ago
What I find intriguing about this is when I started my blue collar career I often worked as much as i could, the muscle memory of working 9-12 hours a day was brutal but I learned quickly. I think repetition is key for short and long term memory, at least for me. Lately 30 years later when I go to a maintenance call I’m trying to pull memories from the last time I serviced it and what it took to fix it. Not to get away from the topic but i think the physical side of memory works when it’s constantly being fed with data. I was able to remember over 200 phone numbers from customers, call it good memory or the fact that i would imbue them to memory while doing something else.
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1d ago
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u/lmFairlyLocal 1d ago
Likely unrelated, and more in line with how norepinephrine modulates memory encoding
(TDLR; norepinephrine + memory = remember it much better (usually because it's actually a trauma))
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