The brain is still active while we are asleep, say
scientists, who found people were able to classify words during their slumber.
Researchers from Cambridge and Paris introduced
participants to a word test while awake and found they continued to respond
correctly while asleep.
The sleeping brain can perform complex tasks,
particularly if the task is automated, the study says.
Writing
in the journal Current Biology, the research team set out to study the
brain's behavior while awake and during sleep.
Using an electroencephalogram (EEG), they recorded
the brain activity of participants while they were asked to classify spoken
words as either animals or objects by pressing a button.
Participants were asked to press a button in their
right hand for animals and in their left hand for objects.
This allowed researchers to track the responses and
map each word category to a specific movement in the brain.
Then participants were asked to lie down in a darkened
room with their eyes closed and continue the word classification task as they
drifted off to sleep.
Once asleep, a new list of words was tested on
participants to ensure that the brain had to work out the meaning of the words
before classifying them using the buttons.
Their brain activity showed they continued to
respond accurately, the researchers said, although it happened more slowly.
At the time, the participants were completely
motionless and unaware.
Sid Kouider, from the Ecole Normale Superieure in
Paris, said: "We show that the sleeping brain can be far more 'active' in
sleep than one would think.
"This explains some everyday life experiences
such as our sensitivity to our name in our sleep, or to the specific sound of
our alarm clock, compared to equally loud but less relevant sounds."
He added that it was possible for people to perform
calculations on simple equations while falling asleep and then continue to
identify those calculations as right or wrong during a snooze.
Any task that could become automated could be
maintained during sleep, he said. But tasks that cannot be automated would stop
as sleep took over.
Their research could lead to further studies on the
processing capacity of our sleeping brains, the study said.
"Research focusing on how to take advantage of
our sleeping time must consider what is the associated cost, if any, and
whether it is worth it," Mr Kouider said.
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