Finnish scientists find brain performs deep clean during sleep
Ever wondered what your brain does while you're asleep?
Finnish scientists have figured out that your brain actually gives itself a deep clean at night.
Using advanced MRI scans, they saw that blood vessels expand and pulse faster, helping flush out water and move around important ions like sodium and potassium, almost like a built-in cleaning crew for your mind.
Vesa Kiviniemi observes bidirectional sleep flow
The team, led by Professor Vesa Kiviniemi, used a new combination of ultrafast MRI and other technology to watch these changes in real time in volunteers' brains.
They noticed that during sleep, fluid flow became more bidirectional in key areas like the thalamus.
According to Professor Kiviniemi, understanding this process could help with better monitoring—and potentially treating—age-related changes in brain fluid dynamics, along with neurodegenerative disorders and other cognitive issues.