Researchers tell us that pulling an all-nighter for that mid-term or final exam is probably self-defeating.
It’s long been known that sleep is crucial for one’s memory, but for the first time researchers have seen how some critical neurons operate.
For the study, researchers focused their research on dorsal paired medial (DPM) neurons, well-known memory consolidators in Drosophila. They observed, for the first time, that when DPM neurons are activated, the flies slept more; when deactivated, the flies kept buzzing.
These memory consolidators inhibit wakefulness as they start converting short-term to long-term memory. All this takes place in a section of the Drosophila brain called the mushroom body, similar to the hippocampus, where our memories are stored. As it turns out, the parts of the mushroom body responsible for memory and learning also help keep the Drosophila awake.
“It’s almost as if that section of the mushroom body were saying ‘hey, stay awake and learn this,'” researcher Bethany Christmann said in a statement. “Then, after a while, the DPM neurons start signaling to suppress that section, as if to say ‘you’re going to need sleep if you want to remember this later.'”
The researchers’ findings were published in the journal eLife.
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