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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Eye Tracking, Cortisol, and a Sleep vs. Wake Consolidation Delay: Combining Methods to Uncover an Interactive Effect of Sleep and Cortisol on Memory
Published on: June 18, 2014
Sleep, memory maintenance, and mental disorders
1Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology and Evolution, University of California, Los Angeles 90095-1606, USA.
Abstract:
Memory circuits of the brain are activated by self-generated brain waves, primarily during sleep. These activations refresh the efficacies (strengths) of synapses in affected circuits, maintaining the efficacies at the "dedicated" values that support circuit functions. The neural pathologies underlying many mental disorders appear to exert their deleterious influences by inducing abnormalities in brain waves. The abnormal waves, in turn, fail to sustain dedicated synaptic efficacies in memory circuits, leading to mental malfunction. Dreaming is an "unconscious" awareness of circuit reinforcement during sleep, with dream contents being derived from the activated circuits. When synaptic efficacies are degraded, the dreams are illusory.
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