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Memory Consolidation

Process Cns

Turning the day's experience into durable memory, which happens during deep and REM sleep rather than during the day. This is the step that breaks first when sleep breaks, and it is why memory complaints on these compounds usually trace back to sleep rather than to anything the compound does in the brain.

Relationships

3 connections

Memory Consolidation acts in

Hippocampus

Where new memory is laid down. Unusually sensitive to sustained cortisol and to lost deep sleep, both of which these compounds can produce, which makes it the structure behind most reported memory complaints.

Memory Consolidation stimulates

Sleep Quality

How restorative sleep is, as opposed to how much of it there is. Deep and REM sleep are where growth hormone is released and where memory is consolidated, so this is the measure that connects a sleep effect to a memory effect. A person can sleep eight hours and get almost none of this.

Verbal Memory

Recall of words, names and conversation. Studied in testosterone trials in older men with mixed and generally small results, which is worth stating plainly: this is one of the few cognitive measures here with any controlled human data at all, and the data does not show a large effect.