We start with a powerhouse team of neuroscience researchers at the University of Wisconsin: Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli. These two have been wrestling to understand the basic function of mammalian sleep: why do we do it? What critical functions does it serve? In 2003, using a collection of EEG, fMRI and some behavioral memory data, they formulated a new theory on the role of sleep: The Synaptic Homeostasis Theory, or SHY, for short [3]. This theory asserts four main points:
Continue reading » “Neuroplasticity: What’s Sleep Got to Do with It?”
