Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep. It’s impact severe on our brain functions, with dangerous consequences arising in daily life.
However, many studies focused on how sleep affects on our body function, and how it impacts the brain.Some studies suggest that sleep may be key in visual learning, memory consolidation, and necessary unlearning.
New research from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of Los Angeles, California (UCLA) confirms that sleep-deprived people experience memory lapses and also faces distorted visual perception, the communication between neurons is temporarily impaired.
Senior study author Dr. Itzhak Fried, said, we discovered that starving the body of sleep also robs neurons of the ability to function properly. This paves the way for cognitive lapses in how we perceive and react to the world around us.
Origin of seizures
The researchers tested on 12 epilepsy patients, who had electrodes implant in their brains, for testing origin of seizures.
While in experiment, researchers given a categorization task to participants in which they had to sort different images into categories as quickly as possible.
In task, the researchers focused on the electrical activity in the temporal lobe of the brain, which associate with memory and visual recognition. However, the scientists noticed that the sleepier and tired participants perform slowly.
Co-author Dr. Yuval Nir, said, the act of seeing the pedestrian slows down in the driver’s over-tired brain. It takes longer for his brain to register what he’s perceiving.”
The study also found that brain cells that took longer to respond associate with slower brain waves.
“Slow sleep waves disrupted the patients’ brain activity and performance of tasks,” explains Dr. Fried. This phenomenon suggests that select regions of the patients’ brains dozing, causing mental lapses.
The researchers demand that sleep deprivation should take much more seriously than it currently, given its real dangers.
More information: [nature medicine]
