The first clinical evidence: Whether we're asleep or awake, our brains are learning.

It turns out that the brain is a good comrade because it works all the time, sleeping or awake.when we go to sleep, it doesn't put itself in an "offline" state, but it's busy organizing new memories.but how does this process work? Recently, a new study published in cell reports provides the first direct evidence that the human brain "plays back" the experience of waking up while sleeping.this phenomenon was found in the brains of two subjects with microelectrode arrays embedded in the motor cortex, which is part of a preliminary clinical trial of brain computer interface.during sleep, the brain plays back the neural firing patterns experienced when awake, a process also known as "offline playback".playback is considered as a mechanism of memory consolidation.in this process, recent memory gains stronger persistence in its neural representation.previously, scientists have observed this phenomenon in animals.the purpose of this new study is to verify whether this phenomenon also occurs in the human brain.in this study, the researchers tested "playback" in the human brain by recording excitatory activity in the motor cortex of two participants.subjects were asked to play a sequential copy game and take naps before and after the game.the game is similar to Simon, a popular game in the 1980s.there are four color panels in the game, which will be lit in different order for players to repeat.but the difference was that instead of using their arms, the subjects used their thinking to play the game, that is, they imagined that they would move the cursor to different targets in turn with their hands, and hit the right color in the right order as soon as possible.Image Source: cell reports participants recorded the peak discharge activity of a large number of single neurons in their brains through a multi electrode array during rest, playing games and resting again.Image Source: cell reports, the study's co-author, Jean Baptiste eichenlaub of Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "in reality, no one has placed multiple electrode arrays in the brain, but these electrodes are small enough to detect the electrical activity of a single neuron."video source: the electrodes used in cell reports for medical indications such as Parkinson's disease or epilepsy are too large to track the peak activity of a single neuron. but the electrode array used in this pre BrainGate clinical trial is the first to be able to perform very detailed neural recording in the human brain. she said: "so this study is unprecedented. "BrainGate is an academic research alliance that includes Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Case Western Reserve University and Stanford University. BrainGate researchers have long been working on developing brain computer interface implants to help people with severe dyskinesia regain communication and control by using their brain signals to move computer cursors, robotic arms and other assistive devices. in this study, the team observed the same pattern of neuronal firing during and after the game. in other words, it's like they continue to play Simon's game after they fall asleep, and their brains reproduce the same pattern at the neuronal level. this finding provides direct evidence for learning related "playback" in the human brain. Image Source: cell reports jarosiewicz said: "this is the first direct evidence that humans can 'see' playback during rest after learning, which may help consolidate memory. in the past few decades, all the memory consolidation mechanisms that we have found in animal studies related to neural playback may actually be applicable to humans. "this finding also raises more questions and future research topics, namely, understanding the underlying mechanism of neural playback in consolidating memory. the next step is to find evidence that there is a causal relationship between neural playback and memory consolidation. one possible method is to test whether there is a correlation between the intensity of neural playback and the intensity of memory wake-up after sleep. although scientists have not yet fully understood how learning and memory consolidation work, a series of animal and human studies have shown that sleep plays a crucial role. jarosiewicz said, "a good sleep before exams and important interviews will help improve cognitive performance. we have sufficient scientific evidence that sleep is important in these processes. Reference: replay of learned neural firing sequences during rest in human motor cortex doi: 10.1016/j.cellep.2020.107581 related reading: "rocking bed" can improve sleep and memory! 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