Rats replay scary memories as they sleep

• Autores: Clare Wilson
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3143, 2017, pág. 9
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • When rats are given a fright while awake, the fear center in their brains reactivates when they fall asleep. This could explain why people who endure frightening experiences often have nightmares afterwards, says György Buzsáki of New York Jniversity. Buzsáki's team wondered if such memory replay might include not just spatial information, but also how the animal was feeling at the time. They tested this by giving a rat an unpleasant but harmless experience--a puff of air in the face from a computer keyboard cleaner--at a particular point along a route. As expected, the rats learned to fear the same spot