Research Connects Deep Sleep Deficits to Alzheimer's Tau Protein Accumulation

A new UC Berkeley study, published in Nature Neuroscience, identifies a link between altered brain wave patterns during non-REM deep sleep and impaired episodic memory. This research also connects these sleep changes to the accumulation of tau protein in the brain's frontal cortex, a known biomarker for Alzheimer's disease. The findings are significant as they are the first to show how tau affects memory consolidation by attenuating traveling slow waves.