Matthew P. Walker, professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who contributed to the report, said: "It might sound like a drummer has taken a beat." "The aging brain does not seem to work Keep brainwaves synchronized. "
The findings seem to find answers to longstanding questions about why memory is affected by aging, even in people without Alzheimer's disease (AD) or other brain disorders.
Julie Seibt, a lecturer on sleep and plasticity at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom who was not involved in the new study, said: "This is the first time that a study did find that cellular mechanisms could be affected during aging, Thus having a causal relationship with the lack of memory consolidation during sleep. "
Sept said that to confirm the findings, however, researchers will have to prove that disrupting these rhythms in the brains of young adults may also cause memory problems.
WACKER, the author of Why We Sleep, a new book, said that the study is devoted to understanding how the sleeping brain can transform short-term memory into long-term memory. Wacker and the research team asked 20 young adults He said: "Then we put the electrodes on their heads and let them sleep."
The electrodes allowed the researchers to observe changes in the brainwaves of subjects as they slept.They focused on the interaction between slow waves and faster sleep spindles.The subjects were tested the next morning to see how many words were remembered.
The results showed that their performance depended on how well the slow waves and sleep spindles synchronize during deep sleep, and Wacker said that when these two kinds of brain waves are fully synchronized, it seems as if the messages will be converted from short-term memory to long-term memory.
The team then experimented with 32 subjects aged 60 and 70. They experienced less brainwave synchronization during deep sleep and fewer words per day.
The team also found that one of the possible causes of the brainwave lacks in coordination with aging is a shrinkage of the brain's area associated with deep sleep, a more severe atrophy and worse brain rhythms, Because the atrophy of the brain in this area is the result of normal aging, and Alzheimer's patients will be worse.
But research also suggests that it is possible to improve damaged memory by resynchronizing brain rhythms during sleep.