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Sleep is known to be important for learning, but how it exerts this effect remains mysterious. Mednick and colleagues now report that performance on a visual shape discrimination task deteriorated across multiple training sessions within a given day, but this deterioration could be prevented or reversed by a brief midday nap. This benefit was specific to the trained task and to the region of the visual field that was engaged by it. Photo courtesy of Photo Researchers. See pages 618 and 677.
Language is classically considered to be a function of the left side of the brain. Now an interference technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation, in healthy subjects shows that the right-side language activity detected in some people is indeed functionally relevant.
A new study suggests that interactions between dopamine and glutamate neurotransmitter pathways are important in regulating the inhibitory effects of alcohol on brain function.
A recent report in Cell shows that the transcription and translation cycles that drive the molecular circadian clock may also be regulated by electrical activity.
Sleep is suggested to repair fatigue or to enhance memory consolidation. A new paper shows that the beneficial effect of sleep is specific to the task and the brain regions engaged by it.