眾所周知睡眠有助于長久的記憶，美國研究人員的一項(xiàng)研究表明，睡眠也有幫助“騰空”大腦從而進(jìn)行新的學(xué)習(xí)的功能。該研究成果刊登在《科學(xué)》雜志上。
據(jù)合眾社日前報(bào)道,，位于美國圣路易斯的華盛頓大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院的研究人員說，神經(jīng)學(xué)家們認(rèn)為,，形成新的神經(jīng)元突觸是大腦進(jìn)行記憶和學(xué)習(xí)的一種重要途徑,，但由于頭顱空間有限等原因，大腦不能無限制地增加神經(jīng)元突觸,。
研究人員利用果蠅進(jìn)行研究,，果蠅睡眠在許多方面類似于人類的睡眠。研究人員保羅·肖在一份聲明中說,，研究人員成功監(jiān)測到果蠅在學(xué)習(xí)過程中神經(jīng)元突觸的形成,，而且發(fā)現(xiàn)睡眠會使新形成的神經(jīng)元突觸數(shù)目減少。
另一名研究人員杰弗里·唐利說,，最令人吃驚的是,，果蠅產(chǎn)生新的記憶只需要20萬個(gè)腦細(xì)胞中的16個(gè)，這些細(xì)胞是讓果蠅在一天中的特定時(shí)間作出特定舉動的生物節(jié)奏系統(tǒng)的一部分,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Science,，doi:10.1126/science.1166657，Jeffrey M. Donlea,，Paul J. Shaw
Use-Dependent Plasticity in Clock Neurons Regulates Sleep Need in Drosophila
Jeffrey M. Donlea, Narendrakumar Ramanan, Paul J. Shaw*
Sleep is important for memory consolidation and is responsive to waking experience. Clock circuitry is uniquely positioned to coordinate interactions between processes underlying memory and sleep need. Flies increase sleep both after exposure to an enriched social environment and after protocols that induce long-term memory. We found that flies mutant for rutabaga, period, and blistered were deficient for experience-dependent increases in sleep. Rescue of each of these genes within the ventral lateral neurons (LNVs) restores increased sleep after social enrichment. Social experiences that induce increased sleep were associated with an increase in the number of synaptic terminals in the LNV projections into the medulla. The number of synaptic terminals was reduced during sleep and this decline was prevented by sleep deprivation.
1 Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
