Midnight snacking can impair memory and learning skills : study.

LOS ANGELES :  Frequent late-night kitchen raids for snacks may impair your memory and learning skills, says a study that found that the habit could alter the brain's physiology.

      eating at times normally reserved for sleep causes a deficiency in the type of learning and memory controlled by the hippocampal area of the brain, researchers said.

      " We have provided the first evidence that taking regular meals at the wrong time of day has far-reaching effects for learning and memory," said Dawn Loh from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

      The team tested the ability of mice to recognise a novel object. Mice regularly fed during their sleep-time were significantly less able to recall the object. Long-term memory was also dramatically reduced, demonstrated during a fear conditioning experiment.  -  PTI

( Page 20, Chennai edition of " The Hindu " * Tuesday, December 29, 2015 )

Courtesy : M.P.Subrahmanian.