New Research suggests your brain never forgets

From Wired Science comes this article describing an action by the brain that is poorly understood. Why does the brain"forget" and what happens to "forgotten memories"?

Well, according to neurobiologist Jeffrey Johnson of the University of California, Irvine - in a study he co-authored, which was published in the magazine Neuron - forgotten memories may be hidden from your conscious mind, however, they might not be "gone".

• "Even though your brain still holds this information, you might not always have access to it,” says Johnson.

That a memory stimulates neurological patterns encoded when the memory was formed, is a well understood science. Less, however, is known about what happens to these patterns when memory fades.

• It’s not known whether those details vanish from the mind altogether, or are subsumed by some larger pattern, or remain intact but inaccessible.

Johnson says that it is still unclear what happens to memory patterns.

• “But even when people claim that there are no details attached to their memories, we could still pick some of those details out.”

read the rest of the Wired article that describes the experiment on retrieving forgotten memories

Drug Free journey to a spotless mind

A new drug-free therapy could be the key to modifying or eliminating fearful memories. Shaun Sanders send in an interesting article from New Scientist. The hope is that a new and simple treatment might help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Present therapy relies on drugs that block brain cells from making new proteins and this can erase fearful memories. The drugs have to be utilized during a critical phase in memory retention. Recent discoveries have found a quirky property of memories called reconsolidation. The process of jogging a memory – with an emotional or sensory jolt, for instance – seems to make it malleable for a few hours. The drugs used up to this point are highly toxic and it is felt that random wholesale erasure of memory may do more harm than good.

A far less invasive procedure is a therapy sometimes used to treat PTSD, called extinction which involves repeatedly delivering threatening cues – gun shots, for instance – in safe environments in hopes of drowning out fearful memory associations. Unfortunately this therapy only works up to a point.

Read more on this controvercial therapy here

Bad Memories? Take a Pill!

Oh brave new world....

Shaun Saunders sent in an article from BBC News documenting a startling side effect to a common heart medication.

From the article:

• Dutch investigators believe beta-blocker drugs could help people suffering from the emotional after-effects of traumatic experiences. They believe these heart medications alters how memories are recalled.
  

• In the study, the researchers artificially created a fearful memory by associating pictures of spiders with a mild electric shock delivered to the wrists of the volunteers. A day later the volunteers were split into two groups - one was given the beta blocker propranolol and the other a dummy drug before both were shown the same pictures again. The group that had taken beta blockers showed less fear than the group that had taken the placebo pill. The following day, once the drug was out of their system, the volunteers were retested. Once again, those who had taken the beta blocker were less startled by the images.

British researchers however are concerned about the ethics involved in such a study - worrying that the procedure might alter "good" memories as well. Memories are used by the brain to form basic behavioral responses, even in early learning environments. The concern is that toying with the preliminary phase of the process may have unforeseen consequences later on.

Read more of this article click here

Scientists working on a drug to selectively erase memories

One of the more popular themes in science fiction are those that deal with human memory. Whether it's copying memory from one place to another, building completely new memory sets, modifying existing memory such as adding new memories or taking away the bad, this has been a theme that has been revisited many times in many stories. Now Shaun Saunders sends in a article from NewScientist that has scientists moving a step closer to wiping away a month-old memory in genetically engineered laboratory mice, while leaving other memories unchanged. The research involved boosts levels of a protein involved in memory storage and retrieval, which has the effect of dispelling memory. Now this is short term memory. Other researchers have shown that it is possible to block the retrieval of long term memories by raising the levels of yet another protein. And yet another protein that erases long term memories completely, even without recalling them. Many neuroscientists do not think it's possible to use these methods in humans, now or in the future, but many agree that with research, future applications are a very real possibility.

<- newscientist article ->

Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Wow, talk about a slam dunk! Shaun Saunders comes up with this fascinating and at the same time unsettling article from "The Independant" dealing with a startling breakthrough in how memory works.

Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works. The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.

Now it seems like I remember reading about findings that parallel these findings. As I remember reading, something along this line was first observed by physicians on the battlefield during the revolutionary war. As far as I had read, this was mostly tied to long term memories. As I recall, those experiencing the "stimulation" (we are talking of course of gross battlefield injuries to the head which allowed direct manipulation of the gray matter, nuff said ok?) experience no pain and perfect and total recall of the memories. On thing that was never discussed was the ability to learn. Yes, this could have profound impact on how one remembers, but also how one learns as well!

As Shaun puts it - 'We can remember it for you wholesale' by Phillip K. Dick

click article title or here for complete story

James Doohan's ashes, possibly lost?!

According to ABC news the rocket that was supposed to carry James "Scotty" Doohan's ashes into space April 28, malfunctioned and may have impacted on top of a mountain in New Mexico's San Andres range -- a location so remote that it was even feared lost. Now, search teams say they know where the rocket is, but they can only reach it by helicopter. A recovery mission is planned.

It has come to light that this particular flight was never suppose to reach orbit for release of Doohan's (as did Gene Roddenbery's ashes a few years ago) and the 200 other persons ashes aboard. This flight was a sub-orbital and the rocket was planned for recovery so the ashes could be returned to the families. Charles Chafer, owner of Space Services Inc., the company behind the launch said another portion of Doohan's ashes will fly on a future mission, when they will be released into orbit.

Thanks to Shaun Saunders for the info

Scientists Are Developing Drugs That Could Eliminate Traumatic Events From Our Memories

Much about why painful memories come back to haunt soldiers and those who live through other traumatic experiences remains unknown. Scientists say that is because little is known about how the brain stores and recalls memories.

But in their early efforts to understand the way in which short-term memories become long-term memories, researchers have discovered that certain drugs can interrupt that process. Those same drugs, they believe, can also be applied not just in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event but years later, when an individual is still haunted by memories of event.

The hope is that a post-traumatic stress disorder patient can work with a psychiatrist and focus a traumatic event, take one of these drugs and then slowly forget that event. With that hope, however, comes a series of ethical concerns. What makes up our personalities — the essence of who we are as individuals — if not the collected memories of our experiences?

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders