Alert! Your memories are in danger of being lost if you are sleep derived, suggests a study.
Studying mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins have fortified evidence that a key purpose of sleep is to recalibrate the brain cells responsible for learning and memory so the animals can "solidify" lessons learned and use them when they awaken — in the case of nocturnal mice, the next evening.
A summary of their study appears online in the journal Science. The researchers, all of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, also report they have discovered several important molecules that govern the recalibration process, as well as evidence that sleep deprivation, sleep disorders and sleeping pills can interfere with the process.
"Our findings solidly advance the idea that the mouse and presumably the human brain can only store so much information before it needs to recalibrate," says Graham Diering, Ph.D., the postdoctoral fellow who led the study.
"Without sleep and the recalibration that goes on during sleep, memories are in danger of being lost."
Diering explains that current scientific understanding of learning suggests that information is "contained" in synapses, the connections among neurons through which they communicate.
A man cannot claim right over the property inherited by his sister from her husband in India
A man cannot claim right over the property inherited by his sister from her husband, as the brother can neither be considered to be her heir, nor her family, the Supreme Court has said. The apex court referred to the provision of the Hindu Succession Act, which lays down the general order of succession to the property of a female intestate, who dies after the commencement of the law.
“Language used in Section 15 clearly specifies that the property inherited from the husband and father-in-law, would devolve upon the heirs of the husband/father-in-law from whom she inherited the property,” a bench of justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi said.
The important view was expressed by the apex court while dismissing an appeal filed by a man, challenging the March 2015 order of the Uttarakhand High Court, holding him to be an unauthorised occupant in a property in Dehradun in which his married sister, who died, was a tenant. The bench noted that the property was taken on rent in 1940 by the father-in-law of the man’s sister and thereafter, the woman’s husband became its tenant. After the death of her husband, she became the tenant of the property.
Fruit and vegetable consumption may improve psychological well-being
Fruits and vegetables are a pivotal part of a healthful diet, but their benefits are not limited to physical health. New research finds that increasing fruit and vegetable consumption may improve psychological well-being in as little as 2 weeks.
Study leader Dr. Tamlin Conner of the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and colleagues found that young adults who were given extra fruits and vegetables each day for 14 days ate more of the produce and experienced a boost in motivation and vitality.
The researchers recently reported their findings in the journal PLOS One.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, adults should aim to consume around two cups of fruits and around two to three cups of vegetables daily.
One cup of fruits is the equivalent to half a grapefruit or a large orange, and one cup of vegetables is proportionate to one large red pepper or a large, baked sweet potato.
As part of a healthful diet, fruits and vegetables can help reduce the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.
In recent years, studies have suggested that fruit and vegetable intake may also improve mental health, medicalnewstoday.com reported.