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A new joint study by Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Weizmann Institute of Science researchers has yielded an innovative method for bolstering memory processes in the brain during sleep.
The method relies on a memory-evoking scent administered to one nostril. It helps researchers understand how sleep aids memory, and in the future could possibly help to restore memory capabilities following brain injuries, or help treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for whom memory often serves as a trigger.
The new study was led by Ella Bar, a PhD student at TAU and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Other principal investigators include Prof. Yuval Nir of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience, as well as Profs. Yadin Dudai, Noam Sobel and Rony Paz, all of Weizmann's Department of Neurobiology. It was published in Current Biology on March 5.
"We know that a memory consolidation process takes place in the brain during sleep," Bar explains. "For long-term memory storage, information gradually transitions from the hippocampus -- a brain region that serves as a temporary buffer for new memories -- to the neocortex. But how this transition happens remains an unsolved mystery."
"By triggering consolidation processes in only one side of the brain during sleep, we were able to compare the activity between the hemispheres and isolate the specific activity that corresponds to memory reactivation," Prof. Nir adds.
Bar says, "Beyond promoting basic scientific understanding, we hope that in the future this method may also have clinical applications. For instance, post-traumatic patients show higher activity in the right hemisphere when recalling a trauma, possibly related to its emotional content.
"The technique we developed could potentially influence this aspect of the memory during sleep and decrease the emotional stress that accompanies recall of the traumatic memory. Additionally, this method could be further developed to assist in rehabilitation therapy after one-sided brain damage due to stroke."
Ella Bar, Amit Marmelshtein, Anat Arzi, Ofer Perl, Ethan Livne, Eyal Hizmi, Rony Paz, Noam Sobel, Yadin Dudai, Yuval Nir. Local Targeted Memory Reactivation in Human Sleep. Current Biology, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.091
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday March 08 2020, @05:45PM
I'm going to give you the same response I give everyone nowadays - please do your own research. You have no reason to believe that any link I provide isn't biased, and I'm done with arguing about the validity of links.
It might seem rude, but everyone has the tools necessary to make up their own minds, and should do so.
Some (probably most) people will take this the wrong way, but that too is not my problem.
There's a reason the UN back in 2017 said that we need to stop medicalizing the brain - that anxiety, depression, etc., are social and economic problems. There is no proof that medication works beyond making people stupid and going around in a stupor. Same as booze - except that booze doesn't start pruning neurons within hours of ingestion.
Of course talk therapy won't work 100% of the time. Nobody ever said it would. Studies have shown that cognitive behaviour therapy is less effective among the poor, probably because part of the depression and anxiety is caused by economic problems, and until those are addressed, therapy won't work.
One interesting study is how an increase of $1 in the minimum wage has a direct effect on rates of suicide. [npr.org] It's been noted among social workers that people who get their old age pensions have a similar drop in mental disorders. Economic stability, and for many people on disability, the resulting increase in income, makes a big difference. In some cases, it almost doubles income.
Same as doctors have noticed for decades that physical problems can also be helped by "applying a green poultice" - money - to the patient.
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