Eat Magic Mushroom to beat Depression

                Psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, may be an effective treatment for depression. A pilot study of psilocybin’s use in cases of treatment-resistant depression showed it was safe and effective. Of 12 patients given the drug, all showed some decrease in symptoms of depression for at least three weeks. Seven continued to show a positive response at three months. Five remained in remission beyond the three months. Many patients described a profound experience. Magic mushrooms have been used since ancient times, both for recreation and for religious rites. Psilocybin acts on the serotonin system, suggesting it could be developed for treating depression. WHO estimated that some 350 million people are affected by depression.

Dreams help you make memories

                Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – the phase where dreams appear – plays a key role in memory formation, a new study involving mice has found. We already knew that newly acquired information is stored into different types of memories, spatial or emotional, before being consolidated or integrated. How the brain performs this process has remained unclear. When mice were in REM sleep, the researchers used light pulses to turn off their memory-associated neurons to determine if it affects their memory consolidation. The next day, the rodents did not succeed in a spatial memory task learned the previous day. Silencing the same neurons for similar durations outside REM episodes had no effect on memory. This indicates that neuronal activity specifically during REM sleep is required for normal memory consolidation.