Reduction in chemical level in brain helps memory

Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
Article Date: 31 Jan 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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According to German scientists, while we sleep, a reduction in the level of a chemical allows the brain to replay activities (and fix memories).

This research could lead towards breakthroughs in treating diseases involving memory.

While we are awake, a neurotransmitter (acetylcholine) suppresses feedback between certain parts of the brain. During slow-wave sleep the level of that chemical is reduced (allowing the feedback to take place).

The research was lead by Steffen Gais and Jan Born of the University of Luebeck (Germany).

When the researchers gave volunteers a drug that kept acetylcholine high during sleep the subjects performed poorly on memory-related tests compared to others who had not been given the drug, they report in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Based on this finding, Born and Gais suggest the practice of giving sleep aids to Alzheimer's disease patients that keep their levels of acetylcholine high may need to be re-evaluated.

However, Jerry J. Buccafusco, director of the Alzheimer's Research Center at the Medical College of Georgia, responded that 'recommendations to remove pre-bedtime doses of AD medications would be premature at this time.'

Buccafusco, who was not part of the research team, noted that Gais and Born's study used healthy, young people whose response to the chemicals may differ from that of the elderly with Alzheimer's disease.

In addition, he said, there is some question as to whether the feedback is needed to fix memories. And, he said, people with Alzheimer's have symptoms other than memory impairment, including aspects of attention, thinking and decision making, which were not tested.

'Their data provide the impetus for further study, however, and it should not be that difficult to design a study in which the efficacy of current AD medications could be tested under different time regimens relative to the sleep-wake cycle,' Buccafusco concluded.

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