Short transient brain events, called “sharp wave ripples” in the hippocampus during deep sleep are responsible for “memory consolidation,” transferring the learned information to the neocortex, where long-term memories are stored, a Rutgers University and College de France research team has found.

The research also represents a move toward a new direction in neuroscience research: instead of focusing on correlating behavior with specific brain events through EEG, neuronal spiking and fMRI studies, increasingly researchers are challenging those correlations as they seek to identify the specific process or processes that cause certain events and behaviors to take place.