No matter how dark and quiet the room is while you sleep, your brain is still working rapidly and having its own conversation. A new study shows that a part of the brain called the endorhinal cortex engages in something called persistent activity while you sleep.
This persistent activity is what is responsible during the day for tasks such as remembering directions or a phone number short-term. The fact that it is actively happening during sleep means that the brain is constantly working while you rest. One fascinating thing about the study is that it showed the same results even when the patient was asleep from anesthesia. This conversation between different parts of the brain is very complex, and totally constant.
This sheds new light on the memory consolidation theories of sleep and the human brain. It adds another player into the conversation that is not yet fully understood
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