Retuning of hippocampal representations during sleep. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38720085/)

These scientists wanted to understand how our brains remember places and navigate through them. They studied the brains of rats as they moved around in a maze and while they were sleeping. They used a special method to track how certain brain cells reacted to different places in the maze.

What they found was that when the rats were sleeping, their brain cells were still active and remembered the places they had visited in the maze. These memories were stable and stayed the same for a long time. The scientists also discovered that the brain cells seemed to be planning for future visits to the maze while the rats were asleep.

They found that the brain cells were constantly adjusting and refining their memories of the places they had been to. This study showed that even when we are not actively exploring, our brains are still working hard to remember and plan for the future.

Maboudi K., Giri B., Miyawaki H., Kemere C., Diba K. Retuning of hippocampal representations during sleep. Nature. 2024 May;629(8012):630-638. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07397-x. Epub 2024 May 8.