Study Uncovers How Stress Affects Memory, Sleep
A new study published in JNeurosci has uncovered a specific neural pathway that may explain how stress leads to poor sleep and memory issues-at least in males. The research sheds light on the brain mechanisms connecting emotional stress to sleep disruption and cognitive deficits.
It is well known that stress can take a toll on both sleep and memory. To investigate how this happens in the brain, researchers focused on the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, a brain region already associated with stress responses. In their experiment, they artificially activated PVN neurons in male mice using advanced neurostimulation techniques.
The results were significant: mice with activated PVN neurons not only slept less but also performed worse in memory tasks compared to controls. This suggested a direct link between stress-sensitive brain activity and cognitive and sleep disturbances.
To further examine this connection, the researchers explored whether inhibiting these stress-associated PVN neurons might have the opposite effect. Indeed, when they suppressed the activity of these neurons in stressed mice, memory performance improved and sleep disruptions were slightly alleviated.
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