Brain Cells May Actually Try to Predict The Future During Sleep

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Brain Cells May Actually Try to Predict The Future During Sleep
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. According to a new study, they could also be looking towards the future, rehearsing activity that hasn't happened yet.

A team led by researchers from the University of Michigan analyzed brain wave readings from rats during times of wakefulness and times of sleep. Readings were taken before, during, and after the animals tackled maze challenges in order to evaluate the preferences of nerve cells while outside of the maze, such as during periods of rest.

"We addressed this challenge by relating the activity of each individual neuron to the activity of all the other neurons"The ability to track the preferences of neurons even without a stimulus was an important breakthrough for us."The new approach meant that as well as linking physical spaces in the maze with specific neuron activity in real time, the team could also work backwards and map neuron activity to points in the maze while the rats were dozing.

When the rats were reintroduced to the maze after sleeping, the neural activity measured during their slumber was to some extent predictive of the new ways they explored their surroundings. The matches weren't exact, but they were close enough to hint at a relationship between dreams and future intentions.

"We can see these other changes occurring during sleep, and when we put the animals back in the environment a second time, we can validate that these changes really do reflect something that was learned while the animals were asleep,""It's as if the second exposure to the space actually happens while the animal is sleeping.

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