Entorhinal Cortex Research

UCLA researchers measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning, memory, and Alzheimer’s during sleep. This  region is called the entorhinal cortex. When a patient is under anesthesia this region of the brain still behaves as if it is remembering something.

There are three connected brain regions: the neocortex or “new brain”, the hippocampus, or “old brain”, and the entorhinal cortex, an intermediate brain that connects the new and old brain. It was found that the entorhinal cortex has persistent activity happening during sleep. Also it has been shown that the neocortex and the hippocampus “talk” to each other during sleep. It is believed that this conversation plays an important role in memory consolidation.

An extremely sensitive monitoring system that allows researchers to follow the activities of neurons from each of the three sections of the brain simultaneously. This enables researchers to decipher the precise communications. To go along with that they have developed a mathematical analysis to decipher complex conversations. The findings of this study suggest that the entorhinal cortex has a huge impact on the memory process. Which leads researchers to believe that the dialogue between the regions of the brain is more complicated than they originally thought.

It is theorized that this process occurs during sleep as a way to unclutter memories and delete information that was processed during the day but is irrelevant. This results in the important memories becoming more accessible. Researchers noted that Alzheimer’s disease starts in the entorhinal cortex, and Alzheimer’s patients suffer from impaired sleep. They think this research may be helpful when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease.

I think that this is very interesting research. I have had several family members diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and I think that it would be great if this research was a stepping stone to finding a cure. Also the fact that my brain deletes information that it deems irrelevant helped me to understand why when I cram for tests the night before, a few days later I find it hard to remember the information.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-scientists-discover-that-239347.aspx?link_page_rss=239347