Everyone
feels refreshed after a good night's sleep, but sleep does more than just
rejuvenate, it can also consolidate memories. ‘The rapid eye movement form of
sleep and slow wave sleep are involved in cognitive forms of memory such as
learning motor skills and consciously accessible memory’, explains Randolf
Mezel from the Freie Universtät Berlin, Germany. According to Menzel, the
concept that something during sleep reactivates a memory for consolidation is a
basic theory in sleep research. However, the human brain is far too complex to
begin dissecting the intricate neurocircuits that underpin our memories, which
is why Menzel has spent the last four decades working with honey bees: they are
easy to train, well motivated and it is possible to identify the miniaturised
circuits that control specific behaviours in their tiny brains. Intrigued by
the role of sleep in memory consolidation and knowing that a bee is sleeping
well when its antennae are relaxed and collapsed down, Menzel decided to focus
on the role of sleep in one key memory characteristic: relearning (p. 3981).
The challenge that Menzel set the bees was to learn a new route home after
being displaced from a familiar path.
journal
reference (summary): Experimental Biology >>