NEW DELHI — Eight-hour sleep every night not
only rejuvenates the body but also helps brain to store and learn a new
language, according to a new study.
A team of international scientists, led by the University of
South Australia and published in the Journal of Neuroscience, revealed that the
coordination of two electrical events in the sleeping brain significantly
improves our ability to remember new words and complex grammatical rules.
In an experiment with 35 native English-speaking adults,
researchers tracked the brain activity of participants learning a miniature
language called Mini Pinyin that is based on Mandarin but with similar
grammatical rules to English.
Mini Pinyin contains 32 verbs and 25 nouns, including 10 human
entities, 10 animals and five objects. Overall, the language contains 576
unique sentences.
Half of the participants learned Mini Pinyin in the morning
and then returned in the evening to have their memory tested.
The other half learned Mini Pinyin in the evening and then
slept in the laboratory overnight while their brain activity was recorded.
Researchers tested their progress in the morning. Those who
slept performed significantly better compared to those who remained awake.
“This coupling likely reflects the transfer of learned
information from the hippocampus to the cortex, enhancing long-term memory
storage,” said lead researcher Dr Zachariah Cross.
Sleep-based improvements were linked to the coupling of slow
oscillations and sleep spindles – brainwave patterns that synchronise during
NREM sleep.
“Post-sleep neural activity showed unique patterns of theta
oscillations associated with cognitive control and memory consolidation,
suggesting a strong link between sleep-induced brainwave co-ordination and
learning outcomes,” Dr Cross added.
Researcher Dr Scott Coussens said the study underscores the
importance of sleep in learning complex linguistic rules.
“By demonstrating how specific neural processes during sleep
support memory consolidation, we provide a new perspective on how sleep
disruption impacts language learning,” Dr Coussens said. “Sleep is not just
restful; it’s an active, transformative state for the brain.”
The findings could also potentially inform treatments for
individuals with language-related impairments, including autism spectrum
disorder (ASD) and aphasia, who experience greater sleep disturbances than
other adults.
