Memory

[forgetmenot]

i saw a show tonight about memory and how they can delete the bad memory neurons in a mouse with a drug to destroy that neuron maybe they said it can be used to help PTDS of people in war or people suffering awful memories it was interesting to watch how far they have come to learn about memory

 

[Andy]

I think I caught something briefly today about a Canadian scientist who may have pinpointed a specific neuron that may hold the key to Alzheimer Disease. I wonder if it was the same thing. Either way any answers to help either or would be fantastic!:2thumbs:

 

[forgetmenot]

It was on a show call Doc Zone i think showing how one can increase memory and also showed on lady there how she remembers everything and how painful that was to have a perfect memory.
They should how exercise and taking more then one language improved memory.
Show songs and making pictures of words help memory to,
IT would be great to be able to pinpoint the neuron that held bad memories with the mouse it was fear and the just drop medicine on it and get rid of it once and for all.
The mouse was not afraid anymore after that.
ONe would to be careful the scientist said not to destroy memories that were good one though
it was an interesting show. i hope studies continue because no one should live with mental pain or fear but then i don't know they say memories are what makes us
sorry just interesting to me that someday tragedies of ones life may if chosen be totally forgotten.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I think this is the study to which Violet refers:

Brain Molecule May Offer Key to Erasing Fearful Memories
by Jon Hamilton, NPR
October 29, 2010

Scientists have discovered a molecule in the brain that may help erase the fearful memories that afflict people with post-traumatic stress disorder.


Red marks the amygdala.

The substance, described in an online edition of the journal Science, was found in mice. But it's part of a memory system that seems to work the same way in people.

Roger Clem and Richard Huganir of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine made the discovery while studying mice conditioned to associate a particular sound with an electric shock.
"If they hear the tone the next day, or even weeks later, the mouse will freeze" because it will bring up the fearful memory of the shock, Huganir tells Shots.

Clem and Huganir wanted to understand how that fearful memory is created.

So they studied the brains of mice that had just gone through fear conditioning. And they noticed that an unusual protein appeared in the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in emotions.

That molecule remained for only a few days and appeared to strengthen the brain circuit responsible for maintaining the fearful memory.

But when the researchers eliminated the protein during this period, mice lost their fearful memory. Forever.

The trick was to eliminate the protein soon after a fearful incident, Huganir says.

"Maybe this is a window of time when behavioral therapy would work much better," Huganir says, adding that it may also be possible to eliminate the protein with drugs.

And he says research on people suggests that it may be possible to create a new window for treatment by having people deliberately recall a fearful memory.

Researchers from New York University found that when people did that, there was a 6-hour window in which the original memory could be altered permanently through behavioral techniques.

Experiments in rodents suggest that's because the molecule involved in fear memories appears once again in the amygdala, Huganir says.

If so, he says, it may be possible to eliminate a person's unwanted memory during the critical period by giving a drug that interferes with the fear molecule.​

This very preliminary, of course, and seems to be applicable only to very discrete one-time traumatic events rather than more chronic trauma such as child abuse.

 

[forgetmenot]

that too is interesting findings Dr Baxter. The show i watched last night actually used a drug to eliminate the neuron that held the memory of fear but either way the memory was eliminated that is all good news. They are trying to learn more about memory and how the brain stores it and how one can perhaps eliminate neg memories so people can move on live a more peaceful life. War vets and abuse victims just give people maybe more hope some day

 

[Andy]

Interesting and amazing stuff! I tried to find what I was talking about but couldn't so I either heard something that wasn't said or I just can't find it. Either could be very plausible. :red: