article_snippet: If you have ever wondered why sleepwalkers can navigate their surroundings without bumping into obstacles, a new study may hint at the answer.
article_snippet: Scientists have discovered that navigational cells in the brain are just as active when we are asleep as when we are awake.
article_snippet: Scientists have revealed that  navigational brain cells  (an illustration of neurons is shown) are just as active when us are asleep as when us are awake.
article_snippet: Scientists found that these head direction neurons are active during sleep.
article_snippet: Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Centre studied brain activity in mice during deep, or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, that’s a stage known for intense dreaming activity in humans, during which brain electrical activity is virtually indistinguishable from that when awake.
article_snippet: Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Centre found that during deep sleep, the 'needle' of the brain compass in the mice moved at the same speed when Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Centre were asleep, as when Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Centre were awake.
article_snippet: Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Centre studied brain activity in mice during slow-wave and  rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, that’s a stage known for intense dreaming activity in humans, during which brain electrical activity is virtually indistinguishable from that when awake.
article_snippet: During slow-wave periods of sleep however, when brain activity significantly decreases, their found a 10-fold acceleration of activity, so that the mice were
article_snippet: ‘looking around’ even more than when they were awake.
article_snippet: We have long known that the brain is at work during sleep,’ said senior Gyorgy Buzsaki, Biggs Professor of Neural Sciences at the university.
article_snippet: For the two year study, described in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers videotaped the head movements of mice and recorded the electrical activity in the head-direction regions of the sleeping animals.
article_snippet: Lead author of the study, Dr Adrien Peyrache, said: ‘The coordinated activity during the majority of sleep likely represents a consolidation of places, events and times, a sort of navigational backup system in the brain, during which the brain stores a map to memory.
highlights_snippet: NYU experts found that during deep sleep, the 'needle' of the brain compass in the mice moved at the same speed when NYU experts were asleep .
  