Michael Goodfellow

• MBBS
• Does sleep play an important role in the consolidation of learned motor skills?

Very little is known about what the brain does during sleep. It is thought that sleep allows us to replay and learn memories and skills acquired throughout the day; however it is not known how this happens.

Most research into how the brain works during sleep uses electrodes placed on the scalp of the subject to record overall brain signals. However, this does not allow us to observe what individual brain cells are doing during sleep.

We have used implanted electrodes and wearable data loggers to record the brain activity from multiple brain cells. These electrodes have been placed into the area of the brain responsible for movement in monkeys 24 hours a day during natural behaviour and sleep. This project uses this existing data to investigate the activity of individual brain cells related to brain waves of different frequencies.

Funding source: Wellcome Trust

Supervisor: Dr Andrew Jackson