Another benefit of sleep; it keeps you from forgetting!

Another benefit of sleep; it keeps you from forgetting! http://ow.ly/OnKDC

In this cool Cell article Davis and colleagues show that sleep facilitates memory retention by blocking dopamine neuron-mediated forgetting. In Drosophila, the ongoing activity of specific dopamine neurons regulates the forgetting of olfactory memories.

This ongoing dopaminergic activity is modulated with behavioral state, increasing robustly with locomotor activity and decreasing with rest. Increasing sleep-drive, with either sleep-promoting agents Gaboxadol or by genetic stimulation of the neural circuit for sleep, decreases ongoing dopaminergic activity, while enhancing memory retention!

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Mahantesh Biradar

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