A team of German scientists have developed a nasal spray that promises to improve the memory of lessons learned during after hours study sessions, only if followed by a good night’s sleep.
These scientists have found that a molecule from the immune system
of the body, Interleukin-6 or IL-6, when administered though the nasal cavity, helps the brains in storing and retaining both emotional and procedural memories during the Rapid Eye Moment (REM) sleep.
"Sleep to remember, a dream or reality?" said Lisa Marshall, co-author of the study, from the Department of Neuroendocrinology at the University of Lubeck in Germany. "Here, we provide the first evidence that the immunoregulatory signal interleukin-6 plays a beneficial role in sleep-dependent formation of long-term memory in humans."
The research
The study was conducted on 17 healthy young men, who were asked to sleep in the laboratory for two nights consecutively. A spray was administered into their nostrils each night after they had read either an emotionally stimulating or a neutral short story. The spray was either a harmless placebo, or the IL-6.
Post that, throughout the night, their brain activity and sleep patterns were observed and analyzed.
The next morning, subjects were asked to recall as many words they could from the story, and pen them down. Those who received the IL-6 dosage remembered more words.
Next step in Evolution?
“If a nasal spray can improve memory, perhaps we're on our way to giving some folks a whiff of common sense, such as accepting the realities of evolution," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal, in which this research was covered as the cover story in October, 2009 edition.
"This is exciting piece of interdisciplinary science, since IL-6 had previously been considered a by-product of inflammation, not an agent that affects cognition," he further said.
This product, which might still take years to get approved by the FDA, is sure to get a rave response from people, especially students who cram things late at night before their exam days. Issues of ethics may arise due to the advantage it provides to the users over other students.
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