Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin.
这里是《科学美国人》的 60秒科学，我是凯伦·霍普金。
When someone tells you to “sleep on it,” they’re usually suggesting that you avoid making rash decisions. But sleep is also widely known to help you remember things you’ve learned.
当有人告诉你“睡一觉再决定”(sleep on it)时，他们通常是在建议你避免贸然行事。但是睡眠还有另一个广为人知的好处：它可以帮你记住你学到的东西。
Now, a nap might seem inconvenient when you’re cramming for an exam. But don’t worry. Because a new study shows that rats who stayed awake after engaging with novel objects could remember seeing those things a week later…sometimes better than rats who slept. That suggests that long-term memories can be laid down without having to lay down. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
如果现实情况是你不得不在考试前临时抱佛脚，睡觉就显得相当奢侈，但一项新的研究成果或许能宽慰到你：相比好好睡觉，大鼠在接触新事物后如果保持醒着的状态，一周后它们对这些事物的记忆有时会表现得更好。这表明在睡眠缺失的情况下也可以形成长期记忆。研究成果发表在《美国科学院院刊》(PNAS)上。
Marion Inostroza: We know that memory consolidation is promoted by sleep.
我们知道睡眠可以促进记忆巩固。
Hopkin: Marion Inostroza of the University of Tubingen. She says that decades of studies have shown that sleep helps to transform…or consolidate…recent experiences into lasting memories.
玛丽昂·伊诺斯特罗萨来自美国图宾根大学。她说，数十年的研究表明，睡眠有助于将……或巩固……最近的经历形成持久的记忆。
Inostroza: However, there’s also evidence for consolidation into long term memory during wakefulness.
但其实也有证据表明，不睡时(经历)也能巩固形成长期记忆
Hopkin: So, sleep-deprived individuals can still learn stuff.
所以，睡眠不足的人也是能学习到东西的。
Jan Born: And against this background, we became interested in the question whether sleep is the only condition, is the critical condition, for the formation of long term memories.
在这种背景下，我们开始对睡眠是否是形成长期记忆的唯一条件，是否是关键条件这一问题产生了兴趣。
Hopkin: Jan Born directs the institute of medical psychology and behavioral neurobiology at the University of Tubingen. For Born, the bottom line is:
简·博恩是图宾根大学医学心理学和行为神经生物学研究所的负责人。对于博恩来说，基本论点就是：
Born: Do we NEED sleep to form long-term memories?
我们需要睡眠来形成长期记忆吗?
Hopkin: To find out, the researchers allowed rats to investigate a novel object. The animals were then moved to a “resting cage” where some were allowed to snooze, while others were gently kept awake.
为了找出答案，研究人员让老鼠研究一个新物体。然后将这些动物转移到一个“休息笼”，允许其中部分老鼠打盹，而另一些则温柔的让它们保持清醒。
Inostroza: And we do that by very gentle knocking the cage where the animal is placed. Or by shaking very carefully the cage where the animal is located.
我们通过非常轻柔地敲击放置动物的笼子来做到这一点。或者通过非常小心地摇动动物所在的笼子。
Hopkin: One week later, the rats are returned to the testing cage and presented with the object they’d encountered previously…as well as one they’d never seen before. Now, if the rats remember the original item, they should spend less time nosing around it than they do sniffing the new new thing. And it turns out that’s the case for both rats that rested and those that pulled all-nighters…or, all-afternooners. So, in this test, all the rats remembered the objects.
一周后，老鼠被送回测试笼子，并展示了它们之前遇到的物体……以及它们以前从未见过的物体。如果老鼠记得原来的东西，它们在原来物体周围嗅探的时间应该比在新物体上少。事实证明，无论是休息的老鼠还是熬夜的老鼠……或者，都是下午的老鼠，情况都是如此。所以，在这个测试中，所有的老鼠都记住了原来的物体。
Born: However, the kind of memories formed during sleep and during wake, they differ.
但是，在睡眠和清醒时形成的记忆类型是不同的。
Inostroza: In our study we could at least disentangle two very different kinds of memories: [Memories] on the one side, memories which are for recognition of an object independent of context and on the other hand those memories which are context and space dependent.
在我们的研究中，我们至少可以理出两种截然不同的记忆：一种用于识别独立于环境背景的对象，另一种则依赖于环境和空间。
Hopkin: So, rats who stayed awake were actually better at remembering the original object than their fully rested counterparts–but only when the item was presented in a new location. Rats who’d gotten some shut-eye after their initial study sesh seemed thrown by the change in venue and showed no signs of recognizing the familiar objects when they appeared out of context. That suggests their memories were context-dependent, whereas for the rats who skipped the nap, context didn’t matter.
也就是说，保持清醒的大鼠实际上比好好休息的大鼠对原始物体的记忆表现更好，但前提是物体出现在了新的位置。在最初的学习过程中得到充足睡眠的大鼠似乎会被场地的变化所抛弃，当脱离环境背景时，它们没有表现出认出了熟悉物体的迹象，这表明它们的记忆依赖于环境，而对于没有睡觉的大鼠来说，背景信息并不重要。
Born: In life, of course, wake is always followed by sleep…
当然在生活中，清醒后总是伴随着入睡。
Hopkin: So Born says the two paths to memory consolidation most likely complement each other…with sleep putting waking memories in their proper place.
博恩表示，这两种巩固记忆的方式很可能是相辅相成的，睡眠会将清醒时的记忆放在适当的位置。
Born: So the wake state may, for example, serve to enhance the different events experienced during the wake phase, keep it in your memory, until you go into the sleep phase. And the sleep phase…puts these objects, these events…into the right context and in this way enhances a full blown episodic memory.
因此，例如，清醒状态可能有助于增强在清醒阶段经历的不同事件，将其保存在记忆中，直到你进入睡眠阶段。而睡眠阶段会将这些对象和事件置于正确的环境中，从而增强完整的情景记忆。
Hopkin: Now, as to whether you might want to avoid dozing after you cram for an exam…
那么，你如果在想能不能在刷题背知识点之后不睡觉......
Inostroza: I wouldn’t recommend this.
我不推荐你这么做。
Hopkin: Of course, rats aren’t people. And people aren’t rats. So it’s not really a fair question.
大鼠不是你，你也不是大鼠，所以这个问题并不那么可推衍。
Born: I think it is a little too early to infer based on our results what students should do to be optimally prepared for an exam.
我认为根据我们的研究成果推断出最佳的备考方法还为时过早。
Hopkin: Nevertheless, Born does come down on the side of sleep.
不过，玻恩确实偏向于睡眠充足。
Born: I’m still convinced, although we cannot infer this from our studies, I’m still convinced that sleep leads to the more effective, overall more effective, type of memory formation.
尽管我们无法从这项研究中推断出这一点，但我仍然相信睡眠会导致更有效，或者说总体上更有效的记忆形成方式。
Hopkin: Plus, sleep gives your brain a chance to rest.
另外，睡眠让你的大脑有机会休息。
Born: When you are not fully rested, it is in general more difficult to retrieve any kind of memory in comparison when you are fully rested.
当你没有休息充分时，一般来说，你会比得到充分休息时更难恢复任何形式的记忆。
Hopkin: And the findings suggest that 40 winks should help you remember not just the who, what, and when…but also the wherefore.
研究结果表明，眨眼 40 次应该不仅可以帮助您记住谁、事件和时间……而且还可以帮助您记住原因。
For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.
以上是《科学美国人》的 60秒科学，我是凯伦·霍普金。
Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin.
When someone tells you to “sleep on it,” they’re usually suggesting that you avoid making rash decisions. But sleep is also widely known to help you remember things you’ve learned.
Now, a nap might seem inconvenient when you’re cramming for an exam. But don’t worry. Because a new study shows that rats who stayed awake after engaging with novel objects could remember seeing those things a week later…sometimes better than rats who slept. That suggests that long-term memories can be laid down without having to lay down. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Marion Inostroza: We know that memory consolidation is promoted by sleep.
Hopkin: Marion Inostroza of the University of Tubingen. She says that decades of studies have shown that sleep helps to transform…or consolidate…recent experiences into lasting memories.
Inostroza: However, there’s also evidence for consolidation into long term memory during wakefulness.
Hopkin: So, sleep-deprived individuals can still learn stuff.
Jan Born: And against this background, we became interested in the question whether sleep is the only condition, is the critical condition, for the formation of long term memories.
Hopkin: Jan Born directs the institute of medical psychology and behavioral neurobiology at the University of Tubingen. For Born, the bottom line is:
Born: Do we NEED sleep to form long-term memories?
Hopkin: To find out, the researchers allowed rats to investigate a novel object. The animals were then moved to a “resting cage” where some were allowed to snooze, while others were gently kept awake.
Inostroza: And we do that by very gentle knocking the cage where the animal is placed. Or by shaking very carefully the cage where the animal is located.
Hopkin: One week later, the rats are returned to the testing cage and presented with the object they’d encountered previously…as well as one they’d never seen before. Now, if the rats remember the original item, they should spend less time nosing around it than they do sniffing the new new thing. And it turns out that’s the case for both rats that rested and those that pulled all-nighters…or, all-afternooners. So, in this test, all the rats remembered the objects.
Born: However, the kind of memories formed during sleep and during wake, they differ.
Inostroza: In our study we could at least disentangle two very different kinds of memories: [Memories] on the one side, memories which are for recognition of an object independent of context and on the other hand those memories which are context and space dependent.
Hopkin: So, rats who stayed awake were actually better at remembering the original object than their fully rested counterparts–but only when the item was presented in a new location. Rats who’d gotten some shut-eye after their initial study sesh seemed thrown by the change in venue and showed no signs of recognizing the familiar objects when they appeared out of context. That suggests their memories were context-dependent, whereas for the rats who skipped the nap, context didn’t matter.
Born: In life, of course, wake is always followed by sleep…
Hopkin: So Born says the two paths to memory consolidation most likely complement each other…with sleep putting waking memories in their proper place.
Born: So the wake state may, for example, serve to enhance the different events experienced during the wake phase, keep it in your memory, until you go into the sleep phase. And the sleep phase…puts these objects, these events…into the right context and in this way enhances a full blown episodic memory.
Hopkin: Now, as to whether you might want to avoid dozing after you cram for an exam…
Inostroza: I wouldn’t recommend this.
Hopkin: Of course, rats aren’t people. And people aren’t rats. So it’s not really a fair question.
Born: I think it is a little too early to infer based on our results what students should do to be optimally prepared for an exam.
Hopkin: Nevertheless, Born does come down on the side of sleep.
Born: I’m still convinced, although we cannot infer this from our studies, I’m still convinced that sleep leads to the more effective, overall more effective, type of memory formation.
Hopkin: Plus, sleep gives your brain a chance to rest.
Born: When you are not fully rested, it is in general more difficult to retrieve any kind of memory in comparison when you are fully rested.
Hopkin: And the findings suggest that 40 winks should help you remember not just the who, what, and when…but also the wherefore.
For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.
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