Gail Gilman, Family Life Consultant, M.Ed., C.F.C.S. and Professor
Emeritus, University of Minnesota
Your memories may grow stronger when you take a break to rest. This could
have important implications for how students study, how people can best
learn new things, and how we remember things.
Long-term storage of a memory is called memory consolidation. It is thought
to involve interactions between different brain regions. There is a belief
that the brain “replays” memories, reactivating the same activity patterns
as during the experience itself. Several studies suggest that this happens
during sleep. Researchers investigated whether it can also happen when you
are awake.
Researchers scanned the brains of sixteen people during two different tasks
as well as before, during, and after rest periods. The people were shown
paired sets of images that included a human face and either an object, such
as a beach ball, or a scene, such as a beach. They were not told their
memory would be tested. They were just told to rest and think about
anything they wanted, as long as they stayed awake.
As expected, correlations between the brain regions were low during the
initial period of rest and high when the people were shown the pairings.
The memory for object-face pairs was much better than for scene-face pairs.
Activity between two areas of the brain correlated significantly during the
rest period after the people saw the object-face pairs. This did not happen
after people saw the scene-face pairs. The higher the correlation between
the brain regions during the later rest period, the better the person
remembered the pairing.
These results suggest that these brain regions coordinate to replay recent
experiences during periods of rest in order to consolidate memories. Taking
a coffee break after class, work or other activity can actually help you
retain that information you just learned. Your brain is working for you
when you’re resting.
Look for more Family Living Focus information from Gail Gilman, Family Life
Consultant, M.Ed., C.F.C.S., and Professor Emeritus – University of
Minnesota, in next week’s paper.