Scientists decipher the activity of the brain in deep sleep
Thanks to a unique system that decodes brain activity during sleep, a UNIGE team is deciphering the neuronal mechanisms of memory consolidation.
We sleep on average one third of our time. But what does the brain do during these long hours? Using an artificial intelligence approach capable of decoding brain activity during sleep, scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, were able to glimpse what we think about when we are asleep.
By combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), the Geneva team provides unprecedented evidence that the work of sorting out the thousands of pieces of information processed during the day takes place during deep sleep. Indeed, at this time, the brain, which no longer receives external stimuli, can evaluate all of these memories in order to retain only the most useful ones. To do so, it establishes an internal dialogue between its different regions. Moreover, associating a reward with a specific information encourages the brain to memorize it in the long term. These results, to be discovered in the journal