Can't remember a thing? Try waiting late in the day

Laila Ali

A recent study - published on the Science Daily website on December 18th - found that memory is worse at waking time compared to bedtime, and this came after researchers at the University of Tokyo identified a gene in mice that seemed to affect memory recall at times Different from today.

"We may have identified the first mouse gene in memory retrieval," says Professor Satoshi Kida of the Department of Applied Biochemistry at the University of Tokyo.

Every time you forget something, it may be because you haven't really learned it - like the name of the person you just met a minute ago - or it could be because you can't recall information from where it is stored in your mind, like the words of your favorite song.

The study of forgetfulness biology
Many researchers study how to create new memories within memory, but the study of forgetfulness biology is more complicated due to the difficulties of distinguishing between lack of knowledge and not remembering during research, and to overcome that during this study Keda says, "We designed a memory test that could distinguish between not learning versus knowledge That are not remembered. "

The researchers tested the memories of male and young female mice in a "learning or training" stage and in memory tests, the researchers allowed the mice to explore a new organism for a few minutes.

Later, in the "recall" phase of the test, the researchers noticed how long the rats touched things when they were reintroduced to them, rodents usually spend less time touching the things they remember previously. Researchers have tested recalling mice by re-entering the same thing at different times of the day.

Remembering protein
The same experiments were performed with healthy mice and mice without "BMAL1", a protein that regulates expression of many other genes. This protein usually fluctuates between low levels just before waking up and high levels before going to sleep.

The mice that were trained before the time they woke up normally, and then tested after the usual bedtime, recognized what had been presented to them. As for those who were trained at the same time but were tested 24 hours later, at the same time from the next day, they did not recognize it.

Healthy mice and mice without "BMAL1" had the same pattern of results, but those without this protein were more forgotten at some point before waking up, and researchers had the same results when they tested mice to identify something or identify another mouse.

Just before waking time when "BMAL1" levels are naturally low, mice do not remember anything they have definitely learned and known.

Biological clock
According to Keda, the memory research community previously suspected that the internal / biological clock of the body responsible for organizing sleep and wake cycles also affected learning and memory formation.

"Now we have evidence that biological clocks regulate the recall process from memory," Keda says.

The researchers tracked the role of BMAL1 in restoring memory to a specific area of ​​the brain called the hippocampus. In addition, the researchers linked the normal "BMAL1" by activating dopamine receptors and modifying other small signaling molecules in the brain.

"If we can define ways to enhance memory retrieval with this BMAL1 pathway, then we can think about applications for human memory deficits, such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease," Keda says.

However, the purpose of having memory recall and recall capabilities that fluctuate naturally depending on the time of day remains a mystery.