If you believe that when you go to sleep your brain takes rest, you are wrong -- it actually strengthens the memories of events that took place during the day.

    Researchers in the United States have carried out a study and found while you sleep, your brain remains busy in strengthening the memories of what you did during the day and it does it in quick spurts, as if your day was being replayed in fast-forward.

    "The brain's medial prefrontal cortex replays daytime activities during sleep six to seven times faster than real time," the WebMD reported, quoting lead researcher Dr David Euston was quoted as saying.

    In fact, Dr Euston and his fellow researchers at the University of Arizona came to the conclusion after monitoring brain activity in rodents that had spent the day learning to scamper around a circular arena in a particular pattern.

    The team found that while the rats slept, their medial prefrontal cortex had spurts of activity that matched brain activity while the rodents had been running around the arena earlier in the day.

    They took that as a sign which the rats' brains were replaying the experience of learning the route around the arena. But during sleep, those brain patterns happened six to seven times faster than the time it had taken the rodents to scurry around the arena while awake.

    "In short, the rats' brain activity kicked into overdrive during sleep to consolidate memories," Dr Euston, who reported the findings in the latest edition of Science journal, was quoted as saying.

    如果你相信當(dāng)你睡覺(jué)的時(shí)候你的大腦也在休息，那么你錯(cuò)了——它實(shí)際上在強(qiáng)化對(duì)白天發(fā)生的事情的記憶。

    美國(guó)研究者的一項(xiàng)研究顯示當(dāng)你睡眠的時(shí)候，你的大腦仍然在忙碌的工作著。它在強(qiáng)化你對(duì)自己白天做過(guò)的事情的記憶，白天的經(jīng)歷在腦中飛快地重放。

    “睡眠時(shí)大腦中部的額葉前部皮質(zhì)會(huì)以實(shí)際速度的6到7倍快速重放白天發(fā)生的事情。”醫(yī)學(xué)博士韋伯在報(bào)告中引述這項(xiàng)研究的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)大衛(wèi)博士的話如是說(shuō)。實(shí)際上，亞利桑那州立大學(xué)的優(yōu)斯頓博士和他的研究者同事們是通過(guò)監(jiān)視嚙齒目動(dòng)物大腦的活動(dòng)得出這些結(jié)論的，這些嚙齒動(dòng)物在白天學(xué)習(xí)了以某種特定的方式圍繞一個(gè)圓形競(jìng)技場(chǎng)奔跑。
    
    研究團(tuán)隊(duì)發(fā)現(xiàn)當(dāng)老鼠們睡覺(jué)的時(shí)候，它們大腦中部的額葉前部皮質(zhì)由和白天在競(jìng)技場(chǎng)奔跑時(shí)一致的活動(dòng)表現(xiàn)。

    但是睡眠的時(shí)候，那些大腦的圖像變化比它們醒著在競(jìng)技場(chǎng)繞圈兒時(shí)要快6到7倍。

    “總之，在睡眠時(shí)老鼠的大腦活動(dòng)加速了，以鞏固記憶。”優(yōu)斯頓博士說(shuō)道。最近一期的《科學(xué)》雜志上報(bào)道了他的這一發(fā)現(xiàn)。

    Vocabulary:

    prefrontal cortex：額葉前部皮質(zhì)