What does the word 'replayed' most closely mean in the text?
Sleep is not a passive state in which the brain simply rests. During deep sleep, patterns of activity that were recorded while we were awake are replayed in the hippocampus, a structure that holds new memories only for a short time. The replay is thought to help transfer information to the cortex, where it is stored for the long term. In one study, students who learned a list of word pairs and then slept remembered more pairs the next morning than students who stayed awake for the same period. The effect was largest for material that was linked by meaning. Yet the findings do not show that sleeping a long time guarantees a good memory. Sleep that is broken into short periods seems to weaken the effect, and some kinds of skill learning improve even after a nap of only a few minutes. Researchers still debate how much each stage of sleep contributes.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. Activity patterns from the waking state recur in the brain
- Step 1: The text says patterns recorded while awake are replayed. Step 2. This means the pattern of activity occurs again. Answer: activity patterns recur. Why not the others: these meanings do not fit the context.
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