Summary: Researchers report resting for 10 minutes after learning a new piece of information helps us to create and retain more detailed memories.

Source: Heriot Watt University.

A brief rest can result in the retention of more detailed memories, relative to being busy in the minutes following learning, according to new research from Heriot-Watt University.

Published in Nature Scientific Reports, the paper follows previous research by the team showing that if we rest quietly for 10 minutes after learning something new, we retain more information. The team’s new findings show that quiet resting after learning not only helps us to remember, it also results in the retention of more detailed memories.

Dr Michael Craig, the research fellow at Heriot-Watt University funded by The Alzheimer’s Society to conduct this research, said: “Recent research suggests that the memory system strengthens weak new memories by ‘reactivating’ them, where brain activity first observed during learning automatically reappears in the minutes that follow. This appears especially true during sleep and quiet resting, when we’re not busy taking in any new sensory information.

“We think that quiet resting is beneficial because it is conducive to the strengthening of new memories in the brain, possibly by supporting their automatic reactivation. However, we don’t know exactly how this rest-related memory strengthening works. Specifically, it remained unknown whether quiet resting only allows us to retain more information, or whether it also helps us to retain more detailed memories.”

Dr Craig and Dr Michaela Dewar developed a memory test able to detect subtle differences in the fine detail of new memories. Dr Craig explained: “In this memory test, peoples’ ability to discriminate between ‘old’ and ‘similar’ photos provides a measure of how detailed stored memories are. If detailed memories are stored, people should notice subtle differences in similar photos, and correctly respond ‘similar’. However, if not-so detailed memories are stored, people should miss the subtle differences in similar photos, and mistake them for ‘old’ photos.

“Interestingly, we found that younger adults who quietly rested in the minutes that followed the photo presentation were better at noticing subtle differences in similar photos, suggesting that these individuals stored more detailed memories, compared to those who did not rest. This new finding provide the first evidence that a brief period of quiet rest can help us to retain more detailed memories.”

The research team will now focus on what happens in the brain during rest periods, and why it has a positive effect on memory retention. To do this, they are combining their new memory test with EEG recording to monitor brain activity during rest; with the aim of pinpointing when and how new memories are strengthened during rest and whether they can detect the spontaneous ‘reactivation’ of new memories in the brain.

The team is currently looking for healthy adult volunteers to join the project – participants should be aged 60 years or older and have no known memory problems or brain injury/diseases. The research will take place in a single session lasting around three hours at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Volunteers will be reimbursed for their time and travel expenses.

About this neuroscience research article

Source: Heriot Watt University

Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.

Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Heriot Watt University.

Original Research: Open access research for “Rest-related consolidation protects the fine detail of new memories” by Michael Craig & Michaela Dewar in Scientific Reports. Published May 1 2018.

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-25313-y

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[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Heriot Watt University “Quiet Rest Helps Us Retain Detailed Memories.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 3 May 2018.

<https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-rest-8950/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Heriot Watt University (2018, May 3). Quiet Rest Helps Us Retain Detailed Memories. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved May 3, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-rest-8950/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Heriot Watt University “Quiet Rest Helps Us Retain Detailed Memories.” https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-rest-8950/ (accessed May 3, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]

Abstract

Rest-related consolidation protects the fine detail of new memories

Newly encoded memories are labile and consolidate over time. The importance of sleep in memory consolidation has been well known for almost a decade. However, recent research has shown that awake quiescence, too, can support consolidation: people remember more new memories if they quietly rest after encoding than if they engage in a task. It is not yet known how exactly this rest-related consolidation benefits new memories, and whether it affects the fine detail of new memories. Using a sensitive picture recognition task, we show that awake quiescence aids the fine detail of new memories. Young adults were significantly better at discriminating recently encoded target pictures from similar lure pictures when the initial encoding of target pictures had been followed immediately by 10 minutes of awake quiescence than an unrelated perceptual task. This novel finding indicates that, in addition to influencing how much we remember, our behavioural state during wakeful consolidation determines, at least in part, the level of fine detail of our new memories. Thus, our results suggest that rest-related consolidation protects the fine detail of new memories, allowing us to retain detailed memories.

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