The brain, at rest, repeats and moves memories

2016/04/19 Agirre Ruiz de Arkaute, Aitziber - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Anatomia/Fisiologia
• Osasuna

According to a study by the University of London, when performing an action and resting afterwards, memories are repeated in the brain and then transferred to another area of the brain.

The results of the research show that the repetition of experiences lived in the brain can be important to strengthen memory and be able to quickly recover memories in the future, but it also requires a certain reorganization of information in the brain.

To carry out the investigation 6 rats were placed running down a track for 30 minutes and then they were resting 90 minutes. As they slept, the researchers analyzed the activity of their brain and found that rats repeated the race in the hippocampus (where memories occur) between 10 and 20 times faster than they had done. And that this same repetition occurred in another area of the brain 10 milliseconds later: the cerebral cortex entorrinal. That is, somehow, that memories were taken to a second place.

The hippocampus receives information constantly, but it seems that it cannot keep everything. So it repeats important memories and takes them to the cerebral cortex to be kept there and can be recovered quickly when you need them.

This is one of the first areas of the brain that are affected by Alzheimer's disease and its main difficulty is to remember what has just happened (although they can easily remember memories of childhood). Therefore, the deepening of this phenomenon can be the key to understanding Alzheimer's disease and other amnesic diseases.