The hippocampus is the seahorse-shaped brain region researchers believe to be critical for learning and memory.

Wilson's previous work has shown that after the animals run a maze, their brains 'replay' during sleep the sequence of events they experienced while awake.

Researchers believe this process is key to sleep-reinforced memory consolidation in both animals and humans, says an MIT release.

The latest study shows that these sequences also occur when the animals are awake and may help them decide what to do next.

The work appeared in the Thursday day issue of the journal Neuron.