In addition to SWS, hippocampal activity occurring during mammalian REM sleep may also be involved in processing memories. Current theories postulate that the REM-sleep-related theta rhythm is involved in memory consolidation in mammals
in rem sleep the hippocampus may be involved in memory stengthening and removal of unnecessary memories
Hippocampal SWRs occurring during SWS and theta rhythms occurring during REM sleep are thought to be involved in processing hippocampal memories. However, both of these phenomena also occur during wakefulness – SWRs during quiet wakefulness and theta rhythms during active wakefulness. This raises the question as to whether such activity occurring during sleep is functionally different from that occurring during wakefulness. Indeed, several studies have shown that reactivation of place cell firing sequences occurs during SWRs observed during brief pauses in exploring rats, as well as during SWS
Interestingly, SWRs occurring during brief (<2.4 s) pauses in exploratory behaviour during training also correlated with subsequent performance. Although additional research is needed, collectively these studies suggest that SWR-related hippocampal reactivation occurring during pauses in exploratory behaviour may be involved in the early phases of memory consolidation within the hippocampus, whereas that occurring during SWS (but not extended periods of quiet wakefulness) may be involved in coordinating processing between the hippocampus and neocortex.
“Since dreams are thought to primarily occur during REM sleep, the sleep stage when the MCH (melanin concentrating hormone) cells turn on, activation of these cells may prevent the content of a dream from being stored in the hippocampus – consequently, the dream is quickly forgotten.”## Hippocampal activity during sleep
see also
Tags: neuroscience science
Superlink: 050 🧠Neuroscience
Source
several papers.
https://time.com/5925206/why-do-we-dream/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117012/
Created: 10-05-23 18:37