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Scientists have found that the brains of humans and other mammals have a system for choosing which life experiences are important enough to be cemented into long-term memory, and which will be allowed to fade away.

Choosing Memories

Experiments in mice revealed that during waking hours, cells in the brain’s hippocampus spark in a specific pattern called “sharp-wave ripples” which tag important experiences for movement into long-term memory storage during sleep.

Researchers put mice through a maze that had a sugary reward at the end for those who were able to reach it. The team then monitored the activity of nerve cells through electrodes implanted in the rodent brains that fed data into computer programs.

They observed that as the mice paused to eat the treat, their brains sparked sharp-wave ripples that were repeated as many as 20 times. The day-time pattern of sharp-wave ripples was replayed during the night, a process that moved the experience into long-term memory storage.

It is during sleep when experiences from working hours deemed to be important are converted into enduring memories.

Events that were followed by very few or no sharp-wave ripples failed to form lasting memories, researchers noted.

The study was published in “Science.”

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