The possibility that the deterioration of the memory of the brain is caused by a slight "deviation" of the brain wave rhythm turned out

Although anyone else age, memory decreases, but studies have revealed that the "deviation" of brain waves is related to the mechanism.

Older Adults' Forgetfulness Tied To Faulty Brain Rhythms In Sleep: Shots - Health News: NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/18/571120472/older-adults-forgetfulness-tied-to-faulty-brain-rhythms-in-sleep

This research was conducted by Professor Matt Walker of the University of California at Berkeley. According to the published paper, it is shown that the rhythm of "brain waves" generated in the brain is an important key in the process of human brain establishing short-term memory as long-term memory It has been. And, when there is "deviation" in the rhythm of multiple brain waves, the function does not work satisfactorily, the result showing that short-term memory is not successfully transferred to long-term memory and is lost as it is is known .

The research team conducts two experiments and is investigating the relation between electroencephalogram and memory. In the first experiments with 20 young people as subjects, we first asked the subjects to memorize 120 pairs of words. Next, I went to sleep overnight with the brain wave sensor attached to my head and recorded the brain waves during sleep. And the next morning, I tested how many pairs of words he / she learned yesterday remember. And by examining the results against the data of brain waves recorded overnight, we investigated the relationship between memory power and EEG.


As a result, it turned out that there was a certain relation between EEG and memory. Especially the research team got noticeable in deep sleepDelta waveWhenSleep spindle waveIt is two brain waves. The delta wave is a slow one with a frequency of 1 Hz to 4 Hz, and the sleep spindle wave is a relatively fast wave of about 14 Hz, so that the "rhythm" in which these two brain waves synchronize is related to the memory of the brain The research team highlights it.

According to Mr. Walker, those whose brain waves are neatly synchronized have a high memory ability. On the contrary, those who have experienced deviations in the brain wave rhythm have proved that they did not get good results with the memory test the next morning.


Next, the research team conducted the same survey on 32 subjects aged 60 to 70 years old. In the same way, I found that there is a link between EEG and memory. Randolph Hedrick, author of the paper says, "The timing of brain waves is 50 milliseconds earlier or 50 milliseconds slower, the brain's memory preservation mechanism will not function."

The research team has also discovered the cause of the decline in memory due to aging. In the brain there is a site that creates a deep sleep, and it has become clear that this site is aging due to aging, leading to a state where synchronization of brain wave can not be taken well. In addition, as the aging of this part progresses, the brain wave is also adversely affected, and furthermore this change is more noticeable as the person suffering from Alzheimer 's disease.

This result indicates that humans can not escape from the decline of memory due to age, although the degree differs. However, on the other hand, it can be said that there is a possibility to revive memory ability by artificially regulating brain waves. Mr. Walker's team is planning to investigate what kind of change will appear in memory by attaching electrodes to the brain and controlling the brain wave rhythm.