During the night, cerebrospinal fluid fills the brain in waves. Researchers speculate that this phenomenon could be linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s.
What happens in your brain during a sleep phase? The brain does not turn off but it cleans itself! From Boston University researchers found that cerebrospinal fluid fills the brain in waves and then repeatedly drains out. They managed to detect these movements in a video.
#DYK our bodies clear toxins out of our brains while we sleep? ???? @buCSNneuro‘s @lauradata & @JohnAWhitePhD discovered that during non-REM sleep, large, slow waves of cerebrospinal fluid were washing over the ????. @atsaraharrison @WIRED @BUCollegeofENG https://t.co/XIB93IRqdE
— BU Experts (@BUexperts) October 31, 2019
Links between cerebrospinal fluid, blood flow and brain activity
“We have known for a long time that there are electrical waves of neuronal activity, explains Laura Lewis, co-author of the study, but until today we had not realized that there are also waves of cerebrospinal fluid.” The latter is present in the central nervous system. Its main role is to protect it from trauma. While an individual sleeps, the neurons calm down, then the blood is evacuated from the brain, it is at this precise moment that the cerebrospinal fluid enters, as if to clean it. Scientists have found links between these fluid currents, brain activity and blood flow in the brain.
Possible links to Alzheimer’s
The researchers hope to be able to use the results of their discovery to work on diseases linked to sleep disorders such as Alzheimer’s or autism. Previous studies have shown that cerebrospinal fluid and deep sleep help flush out toxins from the brain, including proteins that cause memory problems. As we age, periods of deep, slow-wave sleep are less frequent, which could affect blood flow in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid waves, and therefore cause a build-up of memory-damaging toxins.
To confirm these hypotheses, the researchers want to recruit new, older participants to analyze their sleep. 13 people between the ages of 23 and 33 made it possible to carry out the first part of the study. “We have so many people who want to participate because they want to be paid to sleep, laughs Laura Lewis, but their work is actually the most difficult part of our study. We have all the equipment and complicated technologies, and the problem we often have is that people can’t sleep because they’re in a very noisy metal tube, and it’s a strange environment.” If you want to participate, you have been warned.
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