×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Tiny parts of brain take short naps to recharge

Last Updated 03 May 2018, 06:57 IST

The team at the University of Wisconsin, US, which measured electrical waves in the brain, discovered that some nerve cells in tired yet awake individuals can briefly go "offline",  according to the Telegraph.

Prof Chiara Cirelli, psychiatrist and study author at Wisconsin, said: "Even before you feel fatigued, there are signs in the brain that you should stop certain activities that may require alertness.

"Specific groups of neurons may be falling asleep, with negative consequences on performance." Prof Cirelli said: "We know that when we are sleepy, we make mistakes, our attention wanders and our vigilance goes down.

"We have seen with EEGs that even while we are awake, we can experience shorts periods of 'micro sleep'."  She said periods of micro sleep were thought to be the most likely cause of people falling asleep at the wheel while driving.

However, the new research found that even before that stage, brains are already showing sleep-like activity that impairs them. The researchers inserted probes into specific groups of neurons (nerve cells) in the brains of freely-behaving rats. After the rats were kept awake for prolonged periods, the probes showed areas of "local sleep" despite the animals' appearance of being awake and active.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 28 April 2011, 10:08 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT