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Sunday, 18 October 2009 |
Sleep may reduce mistakes in memory, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by a cognitive neuroscientist at Michigan State University.
The findings, which appear in the September issue of the journal Learning & Memory, have practical implications for everyone from students flubbing multiple choice tests to senior citizens confusing their medications, said Kimberly Fenn, principal investigator and MSU assistant professor of psychology.
“It’s easy to muddle things in your mind,” Fenn said. “This research suggests that after sleep you’re better able to tease apart the incorrect aspect of that memory.”
Fenn and colleagues from the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis studied the presence of false memory in groups of college students. While previous research has shown that sleep improves memory, this study is the first to address errors in memory, she said.
Study participants were exposed to lists of words and then, 12 hours later, exposed to individual words and asked to identify which words they had seen or heard in the earlier session. One group of students was trained in the morning (10 a.m.) and tested after the course of a normal sleepless day (10 p.m.), while another group was trained at night and tested 12 hours later in the morning, after at least six hours of sleep.
Three experiments were conducted, using different stimuli. In each, the students who had slept had fewer problems with false memory – choosing fewer incorrect words.
How does sleep help? The answer isn’t known, Fenn said, but she suspects it may be due to sleep strengthening the source of the memory. The source, or context in which the information is acquired, is a vital element of the memory process.
Or perhaps the people who didn’t sleep during the study were simply bombarded with information over the course of the day, affecting their memory ability, Fenn said.
Further research is warranted, she said, adding that she plans to study different population groups, particularly the elderly.
“We know older individuals generally have worse memory performance than younger individuals. We also know from other research that elderly individuals tend to be more prone to false memories,” Fenn said. “Given the work we’ve done it’s possible that sleep may actually help them to reject this false information. And potentially this could help to improve their quality of life in some way.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 16 November 2009 )
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Monday, 09 August 2004 |
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BrainHelper.org has a downloads section that will continue to add tested and reliable programs for free and available for public use. So check it out often to look for new downloads. Downloads are FREE! |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 16 November 2009 )
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Sunday, 30 August 2009 |
Keeping your weight in check may help keep your brain in shape. Being plump can increase the risk of dementia, according to new research reported in NewScientist.
Earlier studies have shown that obesity in middle age can bump up the chances of getting dementia decades later. But this research shows that older people who are obese have smaller brains on average than leaner oldsters.
Brain scans provide a more complete picture of the differences in brain size between obese people and those of average weight. In older obese people, the brain regions important to cognition are smaller, compared with leaner people, and this makes their brains appear up to 16 years older than their actual age, according to NewScientist.
The research was done at the University of California in Los Angeles by Paul Thompson. He found that in people with a higher body mass index, the brains were smaller, especially the parts of the brain that are important for planning and for memory.
In his research, Thompson notes that increased body fat may up the chances of having clogged arteries. This could reduce the flow of blood and oxygen to brain cells.
Some experts believe that exercise, known to improve blood flow and cardiac health, may be the answer to avoiding dementia.
“To keep your brain young, you need to have good blood flow and the way to have this is through exercise,” says Dr. Amit Shelat, a JustAnswer neurologist and faculty member in the department of neurology at North Shore University in Manhasset.
“As a person gains weight, the body can’t handle all the sugar and so pumps out more insulin,” explains Shelat. “The body becomes more resistant to insulin and eventually this leads to Type Two diabetes. The first thing you’ll be told when you go to the doctor is to exercise.”
An obese person is at an increased risk for a stroke, explains Dr. Albert Favate, neurologist and director of the Stroke Center at St. Vincent’s Hospital. “A person could be having hundreds of small, silent strokes in the brain,” he explains. “And these small strokes can contribute to dementia.”
Staying physically fit and mentally active are important for brain health, says Lou-Ellen Barkan, president and CEO of the New York City chapter of the Alzheimers Association. And eating right helps, too, she says.
“A brain healthy diet is one that is heavy on fruits and nuts and low in fat and cholesterol,” Barkan says. “Obesity is definitely not a good thing for a healthy brain.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 November 2009 )
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