Learning Capacity of the Brain During Sleep

As you fall asleep to a good night’s doze, your brain may continue to be active and pay attention to unfamiliar voices during sleep as per a study at the University of Salzburg, Society for Neuroscience, published in JNeurosci. This ability allows the brain to monitor the environment and thereby balance sleep by responding to these cues — unfamiliar voices over familiar ones.

The study team measured the brain activity of sleeping adults in response to familiar and unfamiliar voices.

It was found that unfamiliar voices elicited more K-complexes — a type of brain wave linked to sensory perturbances during sleep, compared to familiar voices. Moreover, unfamiliar voices triggered large-scale changes in sensory processing-related brain activity.

The findings thereby indicate that the brain may still be able to learn during sleep by entering into a “sentinel processing mode”.

Source-Medindia