Pupil Size Crucial for Memory Formation in the Brain: Research
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New York, Jan 2 (NationPress) The pupil of the eye is essential for comprehending how and when the brain creates strong and lasting memories, as indicated by a study conducted on mice.
Researchers from Cornell University in the United States discovered that new memories are replayed and solidified when the pupil contracts during a specific phase of non-REM sleep. Conversely, when the pupil is dilated, this process recurs for older memories.
The team clarified that the brain avoids “catastrophic forgetting”, where the consolidation of one memory erases another, by differentiating these two phases of sleep.
The results, published in the journal Nature, suggest potential advancements in memory enhancement methods for humans and may assist computer scientists in training artificial neural networks more effectively.
Azahara Oliva, an assistant professor at Cornell, indicated that the study suggests that “the brain possesses an intermediate timescale that distinguishes new learning from established knowledge”.
During the research, the team outfitted mice with brain electrodes and tiny eye-tracking cameras while they engaged in various tasks, such as obtaining water or cookie rewards in a maze.
On one occasion, the mice acquired a new task, and upon falling asleep, the electrodes recorded their neural activity while the cameras tracked changes in their pupils.
The recordings revealed that the sleeping mice's temporal structure is more diverse and resembles human sleep stages more closely than previously understood.
Moreover, they found that as a mouse enters a phase of non-REM sleep, its pupil contracts; it is during this time that the recently learned tasks—representing new memories—are reactivated and consolidated, while earlier knowledge remains inactive.
In contrast, older memories are replayed and integrated when the pupil is dilated, according to the report.
