Mice also dream when they sleep

When the mice curled to sleep, they " rewind the film " about the day's activities - a state that scientists think corresponds to the dream of humans. The new study supports the hypothesis that memories are embedded in the brain during sleep.

(Photo: turtletrack) "This work helps us better understand the nature of animal dreams and provides an important clue about the role of sleep in handling memories of past experiences", Researcher Matthew Wilson at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, said.

In the previous study, Wilson measured activity when awake and slept in the hippocampus region of mice - the brain's memory center. They found the mouse " turned on " the memories when sleeping. But whether rats recreate real images is unclear.

In human dreams, vivid images are intertwined to create a memory film. To find out if the mouse " turned " the image again, Wilson and his colleagues measured brain activity in the hippocampus and imaging area while the mouse ran through a maze with many different designs on the floor and on the wall.Brain regions exhibit certain patterns of activity when the mouse senses the surrounding environment in the labyrinth.

Then, when the mouse slept, scientists re-measured brain activity. The results show that the mouse rewinds a series of images experienced while running through the maze. The exact model of brain activity when the province also reappears in sleep in the image and memory areas.

Since then, researchers have deduced that during sleep, nerves in the imaging area " talk " to the nerves in the hippocampus in a "private" communication . Thereby, the mouse's sleep helps to strengthen the experiences of the day and make these memories become long-term.

MT