( If you snooze you lose those uncomely ...)Noise And Delays Explain Why Some Genes Oscillate In Activity

If you snooze, you lose those uncomely grayish-brown crescents below your eyes. If you don't snooze, you lose a lot more. The body can't fight off infection, the muscles can't regenerate as quickly, the mind can't learn new words, and the eyes can't focus on the road. You also gain things: a bad mood and increased risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart problems. Indeed, the effects of sleep deprivation can be so serious that some sleep scientists liken lifetime sleep debt to a heavy backpack: every sleep hour missed adds an extra pound to your pack until it weighs you down.

For people without time for a daily eight hours in the sack, drugs that counteract the effects of sleep deprivation could serve as substitutes. In a new study, Sam Deadwyler and colleagues have explored this possibility by giving dog-tired rhesus monkeys a drug shown to improve the functioning of alert brains. They found that sleepy monkeys taking the drug performed tasks better and had increased metabolic activity in several regions of their brains. This suggests that the cognitive effects of sleep deprivation can be reduced chemically.

The researchers kept the monkeys awake for 30 to 36 hours by playing music and videos, keeping the lights on, and interacting with them: all the annoyances that can also keep humans from sleeping. To determine the drug's effect on drowsy monkeys, Deadwyler and colleagues used a behavioral test called Match-To-Sample, which measured both accuracy of memory and speed of recall. In the behavioral test, the monkeys saw a simple image flash on a screen. For a variable amount of time, the monkeys had to remember the image. Then, they had to select the correct image from a group of others shown on the monitor simultaneously. When monkeys correctly selected the original image with a cursor, they got a squirt of juice in their mouth as reward. The researchers measured how long they could keep the screen blank between the first and second images w
'"/>

Source:

Page: 1 2 3
Related biology news :

1. Noise echoes in cell communications
2. Genes In The Interferon System Important In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
3. Protein Packages Found To Activate Genes; May Be What Regulates Development And Disease
4. VCU Researchers Identify Networks Of Genes Responding To Alcohol In The Brain
5. Genpathway and Baylor College of Medicine Identify New Genes in Breast Cancer
6. Where Bacteria Get Their Genes
7. Genes linked to treatment resistance in children with leukemia
8. Genes involved in biofilms
9. Genes involved in cell growth and cell division identified
10. Genes affecting blood pressure change as children become adults
11. Genes discovered that allow gum disease bacterium to invade arteries