Human brain
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Lack of sleep can have a powerful impact on your brain, according to a new study in the United States. Making the brain go without sleep for even one night could result in instability that could actually make it liable to shutdowns.

According to researchers, the shutdowns were brief and at those points, the brain was in limbo apparently, between the sleep and wakeful states. Speaking on the subject, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's David Dinges, the person behind the study, said, "It's as though it is both asleep and awake and they are switching between each other quite rapidly."

Speaking over telephone during the course of an interview, Dinges said, "Imagine you are sitting in a room watching a movie with the lights on. In a stable brain, the lights stay on all the time. In a sleepy brain, the lights suddenly go off."

Talking about what the study came up with finally, Dr. Dinge said what seems apparent is that people usually suffering from sleep deprivation have two states of existence - one in which the brain function is almost normal and the other in which the patient's brain makes definite mistakes in visual processing as well as, holding the attention.

Dr. Dinges said, "This involves more structures changing than we've ever seen before, but changing just during these lapse." During the course of his study Dr. Dinges and his associates did imaging studies on the brains of 24 adults. The imaging technique used was called, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a technique used to evaluate the blood flow happening in the brain.

Each of the 24 people carried out simple activities that required visual attention. They were asked to carry out these activities when they all had adequate rest and then also when they had no sleep the previous night. The researchers found wide variations in the results in both the stages.

When the 24 people were denied sleep, the impact could be easily seen, as their brain images showed lapses in memory in a number of key areas. The same pattern was, however, missing in those adults who were subjected to the tests after a period of rest.

Dinges said about the study, "These people are not lying in bed. They are sitting up doing a task they learned and they are working very hard at doing their best." The findings of the study have made their way into the Journal of Neuroscience.