ay help explain forgetfulness in elderly people, or in individuals suffering from poor sleep.
一项在大脑记忆方面的新发现有助于解释上年纪的人抑或正忍受糟糕睡眠者健忘的原因。
Neuroscientists at UC Berkley found slow brainwaves generated while we sleep play a key part in transporting memories from the hippocampus to the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus stores short-term memories, while the prefrontal cortex is our long-term memory bank.
加州大学伯克利分校的神经学家发现睡眠时大脑产生的慢波在海马体向前额叶皮层传输记忆的过程中起着关键作用。海马体负责短期记忆，而前额叶皮层是负责存放长期记忆的银行。
The problem is that as we grow older, memories may be getting jammed in the hippocampus thanks to poor quality of sleep, and new memories rewrite the old ones.
问题是随着年龄的增长，变糟糕的睡眠质量以及新的记忆覆盖在旧的之上，记忆可能会海马体中堵塞。
“What we have discovered is a dysfunctional pathway that helps explain the relationship between brain deterioration, sleep disruption and memory loss as we get older – and with that, a potentially new treatment avenue, ” said UC Berkeley sleep researcher Matthew Walker, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley and senior author of the study published Jan. 27 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
“我们发现了一条不正常的途径，有助于解释随着年龄变老与大脑退化，睡眠中断和记忆丧失之间的关系，这是一个潜在的新的治疗途径。”加州大学伯克利分校的睡眠研究员 心理学和神经科学副教授马修沃克说，他是1月27日在“自然神经科学”杂志上发表研究的资深作者。
“When we are young, we have deep sleep that helps the brain store and retain new facts and information, ” Walker said. “But as we get older, the quality of our sleep deteriorates and prevents those memories from being saved by the brain at night.”
“当我们年轻的时候，我们有深度睡眠来帮助大脑贮存和保留新的事实和信息，”沃克说，“但随着年纪增长，睡眠质量的恶化阻碍了大脑在夜间保存那些记忆。”
For healthy adults, it’s estimated we spend a quarter of the night in deep, rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, when slow waves are generated by the brain’s middle frontal lobe. The study found that degenerated of the frontal lobe in elderly people was tied to their failure to enter the REM sleep state.
据估计，对于健康的成年人，每晚有四分之一的时间是深度的，快速眼动（REM）睡眠。脑慢波此时由大脑的额叶中间产生。研究发现，中老年人的额叶退化导致他们未能进入快速眼动（REM）睡眠状态。
Improving Sleep for Better Memory
改善睡眠质量，记得更牢
Researchers at UC Berkley will be conducting a study to see whether they can help improve the overnight memory of older adults.
加州大学伯克利分校的研究人员将进行一项研究，看看他们是否可以帮助提高上年纪的成人的隔夜记忆能力。
“Can you jumpstart slow wave sleep and help people remember their lives and memories better? It’s an exciting possibility, ” said Bryce Mander, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at UC Berkeley and lead author of this latest study, in a press release.
“你能快速启动慢波睡眠，并帮助人们记住他们的生活和记忆吗？这是一个令人兴奋的可能性。”加州大学伯克利分校的这项最新研究的主要作者，心理学博士后研究员布莱斯曼德在一份新闻稿中说。
So far, they’ve tested 18 younger adults (most in their 20s), and 15 elderly people (most in their 70s). They had each individual try to remember a 120-word set. According to the press release “As they slept, an electroencephalographic (EEG) machine measured their brain wave activity. The next morning, they were tested again on the word pairs, but this time while undergoing functional and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans.”
到目前为止，他们已经测试了18个年轻的成人（大多数在20多岁），15个老人（大多数在70岁）。他们每一个人，要尽量记住一个120词对。“当他们睡觉的时候，用脑电图（EEG）机器测量他们的脑电波活动。第二天早上，他们再次测试词对，但是这一次同时对功能和结构进行磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描。”根据新闻稿件，“ 他们发现，参加测试的中老年人睡眠质量比年轻的参加者低75％，记忆测试的结果要糟55％。
According to the press release, however, “in younger adults, brain scans showed that deep sleep had efficiently helped to shift their memories from the short-term storage of the hippocampus to the long-term storage of the prefrontal cortex.”
根据新闻稿，“年轻成人的脑部扫描显示，深度睡眠，有效地把他们的短期记忆从海马体转移了到长期存储的前额叶皮层中。”
Photo credit: By mark sebastian (Flickr: Laziest. Model. Ever. (#6228), via Wikimedia Commons.
图片来源：马克·塞巴斯蒂安（Flickr网站：懒，模型，永远。（＃6228），通过维基百科常识。
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