Dec 24, 2013 08:30 AM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Cramming the entire syllabus in one go helps remember less when compared to taking breaks between studying sessions, a latest research on mice reveals.

Researchers examined physical changes in the brain cells of mice and while training their eyes to keep track of a moving image.

In order to understand whether rest intervals improved memory, the researchers studied the horizontal optokinetic response, or HOKR, reported Medical Xpress.

For the experiment, scientists fixed the heads of the mice firmly to a device making it immobile. These mice were they shown a revolving, checkered image that triggered HOKR eye response. They then set a high speed camera to determine when the tracking began and when it stopped.

The authors found that mice were unable to follow the revolving image at a high speed in the beginning, but slowly registered the images. Some mice were allowed to rest between training sessions while the others were not.

The researchers found that the mice that received training with specific rest intervals had better memory retention than those who did not.

"One hour of spacing produced the highest memory retention at 24 hours, which lasted for one month," wrote lead study author Wajeeha Aziz, a molecular physiologist at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Okazaki, Japan, and her colleagues.

"Surprisingly, massed training also produced long-term memory. ... However, this occurred slowly over days, and the memory lasted for only one week."

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