Paul Shaw, PhD, professor of neurobiology at the Washington University School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted their study on three groups of fruit flies - whose brains regulate sleep in a similar way to humans.
In each group of flies, the researchers disabled a gene to cause different memory problems, but all of which interfered with their ability to make new memories.
Advertisement
In one group, the disabled gene triggered the development of a memory condition similar to Alzheimer's disease. Another group of flies had problems making brain connections that encode memories while another group had too many of these brain connections.
