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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- While you sleep, your brain is busy processing new memories and converting them into long-term memories. New research suggests ageing impairs this process, potentially causing some of the memory problems associated with old age.
During sleep, the hippocampus -- a brain region involved in learning and memory -- repeatedly replays brain activity from recent awake experiences. This constant replay process is thought to be important for memory consolidation and the formation of long-term memory.
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Researchers at the University of Arizona recently found reduced replay during sleep in old compared to young rats. The older rats, with the reduced sleep replay, scored worse on tests of special memory than the young rats that had normal sleep replay.
"This is the first study to suggest that an animal's ability to perform a special memory task may be related to the brain's ability to perform memory consolidation during sleep," Carol Barnes, Ph.D., lead study author and researcher at the University of Arizona, was quoted as saying.
Study authors say identification of the specific cause of memory loss in aging brains may be the first step to preventing age-related memory loss.
SOURCE: The Journal of Neuroscience, published online July 30, 2008
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