The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation On Memory - 1605 Words

This study investigated the effects of sleep deprivation on memory. A sample of 17 Long-Evans rats was deprived of water except for a 15-minute exposure. Day one just water was administered, day two grape juice was administered followed by a LiCl injection and day three both water and grape juice were administered. Half of the rats were sleep deprived on day two and taste aversion was calculated on day three. The groups gave unexpected results but the results were significant. Sleep has been a widely controversial topic discussed in the study of learning and memory. The lack of sleep has been thought to disrupt learning and negatively affect memory. The association between memory and sleep is still being studied and many have supported†¦show more content†¦It was concluded that test performance was not affected by REM sleep. There was also no significant data concluded in this study. Another study on hypothermia and conditioned taste aversion was done on male albino Wistar-derived rats (Hinderliter, Musci, Pollack, Misanin,Anderson, 2004). These rats were investigated to see if hypothermia affected the effect of conditioned taste aversion. The rats were made hypothermic at different intervals following the taste aversion. The data suggests that shorter CS-US intervals resulted in amnesia and longer CS-US intervals resulted in an association based on a slowed metabolism. The data concluded that hypothermia altered the ability to learn. Bradley Youn gblood, Jun Zhou, Gennady Smagin, Donna Ryan and Ruth Harris (1997) conducted a study entitled Sleep Deprivation by the â€Å"Flower Pot† Technique and Spatial Reference Memory. In this study, they put rats in a Morris water maze and test how long it took for them to reach the platform. However, after day one they were sleep deprived by being placed on a platform above water so if they lost muscle control, by trying to fall asleep, they would fall in the water. From trial one to trial four the time to find the platform, in the Morris water maze, doubled. This study concluded that sleep deprivation caused memory impairments. In the current study, in consistency with previous literature, our hypothesis was