Neuroscience News

Lack of sleep definitely affects your performance the next day, and probably for a longer period of time than you might expect, according to a new study.

New research finds that small regions of the brain cycle in and out of sleep, even when awake. The cycles shift toward “awake” when that part of the brain pays attention to a task.

In a new study in Nature Neuroscience, Ada Eban-Rothschild, PhD, Luis de Lecea, PhD, and their fellow Stanford neuroscientists identified a brain circuit that’s indispensable to the sleep-wake cycle as well as a key component of the reward system.

Inhibiting the firing of nerve cells in a brain area long known to guide goal-directed behavior makes mice build nests and fall asleep, a new study shows. Stimulating the circuit roused the mice and kept them awake.

To find out what time of day is best for learning, undergraduate Meagan Shinbashi spent late nights in the lab giving memory tests to mice.