Posted by James Devitt-NYU on
NYU (US)—Taking a rest break—while awake—can help strengthen memories, a new study suggests.
The findings, which appear in the latest issue of the journal Neuron,expand our understanding of how memories are boosted. Previous studies
had shown this process occurs during sleep, but not during times of
awake rest.
“Taking a coffee break after class can actually help you retain that
information you just learned,” explains Lila Davachi, an assistant
professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural
Science, in whose laboratory the study was conducted. “Your brain wants
you to tune out other tasks so you can tune in to what you just
learned.”
The study, whose lead author was Arielle Tambini, a doctoral
candidate in NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science, focused on
memory consolidation—the period when a memory is stabilized after it is
initially created, or encoded.
To determine if memory consolidation occurred during periods of awake
rest, the researchers imaged the hippocampus, a brain structure known
to play a significant role in memory, and cortical regions during
periods of awake rest. Previous studies have demonstrated regions of the
brain more active during periods of rest, but their function at these
times had been unclear.
The experiment tested subjects’ associative memory by showing them
pairs of images containing a human face and an object (e.g., a beach
ball) or a human face and a scene (e.g., a beach) followed by periods of
awake rest. Subjects were not informed their memory for these images
would later be tested, but, rather, were instructed to rest and simply
think about anything that they wanted, but to remain awake during the
resting periods.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to
gauge activity in the hippocampus and cortical regions during the task
and during the ensuing rest period.
Researchers found that during rest after the study experience (after
the visuals were shown), there was a significant correlation between
brain activity in the subjects’ hippocampus and cortical regions that
were active during the initial encoding of each stimulus pair. However,
this boost in brain correlations was only seen following experiences
that were later memorable suggesting these parts of the brain act in
tandem for a purpose—to consolidate memories during rest.
Also, when examining each subject individually, researchers found
that subjects who had greater resting correlations between the
hippocampus and cortex, also exhibited better performance on a
subsequent associative memory test and those whose brain correlations
were weaker, had worse memory—in other words, the greater the activity
in hippocampus and cortical regions, the stronger the memory.
“Your brain is working for you when you’re resting, so rest is
important for memory and cognitive function,” Davachi observes. “This is
something we don’t appreciate much, especially when today’s information
technologies keep us working round-the-clock.”
The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and Dart Neuroscience.
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