A research group led by Professor Yoshitaka Fukada and Assistant Professor Kimiko Shimizu of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Science found in an experiment using mice that the easy-to-remember time of the day was the first half of the active period.The body clock in the hippocampus in the brain creates a time zone that is easy to remember, and if this research is used, it may be useful for improving memory disorders associated with aging in humans in the future.
According to the University of Tokyo, the research group showed mice two blocks for 2 minutes, put them back in their home cages, and then tested them again after 5 hours for long-term memory and 24 minutes for short-term memory. ..At this time, one of the building blocks shown to the mouse was exchanged from a known one to another, and the memory strength of the mouse was evaluated by the search time of the building blocks.
As a result, it was found that the recognition level of short-term memory did not change throughout the day, but long-term memory increased in the first half of the active period.Since mice are nocturnal, their memory was higher in the early hours of the night.
The diurnal rhythm of long-term memory was lost when the mouse body clock oscillation center was destroyed.Furthermore, when the hippocampal gene that controls memory was deleted, there was no change in the rhythm of activity and rest, but long-term memory disappeared at any time, revealing that the hippocampus produces the rhythm of long-term memory. became.
It is known that even humans have diurnal changes in long-term memory.The memory mechanism discovered this time is thought to apply to humans as well, and in the case of diurnal people, the learning effect of long-term memory peaks in the morning.
