Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: The Independent

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.

Scientists are now applying the technique in the first trial of the treatment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. If successful, it could offer hope to sufferers from the degenerative condition, which affects 450,000 people in Britain alone, by providing a "pacemaker" for the brain.

Three patients have been treated and initial results are promising, according to Andres Lozano, a professor of neurosurgery at the Toronto Western Hospital, Ontario, who is leading the research.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-discover-way-to-reverse-loss-of-memory-775586.html

---

Science is cool!

[benld74]

1. It's like Deja vu man! I think?!

[Beetwasher]

2. Hmm, Where Have I Heard This Before?

n/t

[VP505]

3. I would tell you

but damn I just don't remember.

[Xipe Totec]

4. That just reminded me of a very important point I wanted to make

Wait..


Uh... :think:


Nope....



It's gone now... :banghead:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. "his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on "

Imagine the possibilities!

[Demeter]

15. Electric Democrats! GOP Fizzles Under "Current Administration" !

Let the Pun Begin!

[truedelphi]

6. Like John Hiatt croons in one of his songs

"There are only two things in life worth remembering but
I forget what they are."

[OKthatsIT]

7. TAKE THEM OFF all Statin drugs and remove FLOURIDE, please

Come on people...keeping you sick makes money.

Keeping you stupid keeps you enslaved.

[Land Shark]

8. Interesting, hopeful research (yes, science is cool as the OP says)

[truedelphi]

9. Self Delete as it duplicated

[truedelphi]

10. Edgar Cayce hit his head as a young boy - after that he claimed he had the

Ability to learn the contents of a book simply by putting it under his piollow and sleeping on it.

A youngster in England fell and injured his head - and he became epileptuic as a result of tht fall.

He acquired the ability to know the answer ot complex math quetions - ask himnwaht 134,786 X 43,k514 equals, and he iwll recite the answer, bnot real quickly but ceratinly as fast as someone using pencil and paper.

Plus he says that what happens is that he will see a color - for instance, seeing red might mean the number seven is indicated, seeing blue means nine etc.

He can recite Pi to the ten thousandth placement. People come from around England to listen to him.

We really do not understand the brain.

[ElboRuum]

17. Calling Bullshit.

It is extraordinarily unlikely that anyone would travel all the way to the next room to listen to someone recite pi, let alone from all over England.

[JohnyCanuck]

23. But it might not be that unusual to travel some distance

to see someone preform acts of mental mathematics which are far beyond the capabilities of most humans, someone perhaps like the individual described below in an article in The Guardian.

A genius explains

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism. Interview by Richard Johnson

Saturday February 12, 2005
The Guardian

Daniel Tammet is talking. As he talks, he studies my shirt and counts the stitches. Ever since the age of three, when he suffered an epileptic fit, Tammet has been obsessed with counting. Now he is 26, and a mathematical genius who can figure out cube roots quicker than a calculator and recall pi to 22,514 decimal places. He also happens to be autistic, which is why he can't drive a car, wire a plug, or tell right from left. He lives with extraordinary ability and disability.

Tammet is calculating 377 multiplied by 795. Actually, he isn't "calculating": there is nothing conscious about what he is doing. He arrives at the answer instantly. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see numbers as shapes, colours and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a clap of thunder. "When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think."

Tammet is a "savant", an individual with an astonishing, extraordinary mental ability. An estimated 10% of the autistic population - and an estimated 1% of the non-autistic population - have savant abilities, but no one knows exactly why. A number of scientists now hope that Tammet might help us to understand better. Professor Allan Snyder, from the Centre for the Mind at the Australian National University in Canberra, explains why Tammet is of particular, and international, scientific interest. "Savants can't usually tell us how they do what they do," says Snyder. "It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes what he sees in his head. That's why he's exciting. He could be the Rosetta Stone."

SNIP

Last year Tammet broke the European record for recalling pi, the mathematical constant, to the furthest decimal point. He found it easy, he says, because he didn't even have to "think". To him, pi isn't an abstract set of digits; it's a visual story, a film projected in front of his eyes. He learnt the number forwards and backwards and, last year, spent five hours recalling it in front of an adjudicator. He wanted to prove a point. "I memorised pi to 22,514 decimal places, and I am technically disabled. I just wanted to show people that disability needn't get in the way."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1409903,00.html#article_continue

[ElboRuum]

38. Hmm... joke not recognized... must explain... funny factor reduced...

That which is bullshit is not savantism... it is the suggestion that people come from miles around to hear someone recite pi... strikes me as a bit of absurdism.

[JohnyCanuck]

22. I saw a lady like that

When I was in high school a middle aged East Indian lady visiting from India gave a demonstration for the school in which she did incredibly complex math operations involving mentally adding, multiplying, dividing, raising to powers, finding roots etc. of seemingly impossibly large numbers (called out to her at random by students in the audience) all in her head. It's been a while now, but I seem to recollect she said that it was an ability she just found she had as she was growing up, and not something that she had to study how to do, or that came to her after some unusual experience. Although sometimes people with seemingly large mental handicaps can, at the same time, be extremely gifted with extraordinary abilities in music, languages or mathematics, this lady was mentally quite normal in all respects, except that she had an extraordinary ability to do math in her head.

[truedelphi]

36. It does make you wonder. And what a gift - especially as she led a normal life.

D.H. Lawrence was invited to visit a man in a mental asylum in Great Britain.

The friend who found this "mental case" intriguing stopped by D.H.'s house and the two of them embarked on a pleasant hike through the neighboring pathways of English countryside. They had several long talks about several subjects, all of them greatly interesting to both participants.

When they got to the asylum, D.H. went over to the "mental case"

Without saying so much as "Hi," the guy began to recite, verbatim, the entire one hour conversation that D.H. and his friend had shared in their walk to the facility.

[truedelphi]

11. Self delete due to duplication

[UALRBSofL]

12. You shouldn't make jokes about people with dementia

Because you never know who reads your posts and may find it hurtful and offensive. :mad:

[iaviate1]

16. Did the OP make a joke?

Anyway, I agree that this is no laughing matter. It's horrible to see somebody you love suffer from dementia... at times worse than seeing them in a hospital bed because you fear for their future and quality of lift to come.

[Pale Blue Dot]

26. My only original quote was "science is cool"

The rest is a selection from the article at the link.

[Wilms]

13. But how will humans use this power?

:shrug:

[dysfunctional press]

19. jeopardy.

wire me up, and point me toward alex trebek.

[Sam Ervin jret]

14. electroshock therapy, made painless is what it sounds like to me

I'm not sure I want to remember anything that much, but for dementia illnesses, I can see why people want to try anything. If you're using it just to increase human memory for the sake of increase in memory capacity alone - count me OUT. Sometimes these "finds" lead to more understanding of how memory works and how we can increase the health of our memory in a more normal or natural way. And that would be cool.

[cbayer]

20. Actually, nothing like it

Electroshock causes a seizure - all the neurons in the brain fire at one time. Deep brain stimulation targets a very small and specific area and only effects those cells.
And electroshock has come a long way from the snakepit and is now painless, if done correctly. Although a rather drastic intervention, it has saved many, many people.
And like people with dementia, people with severe depression and psychotic illnesses are also often willing to do whatever it takes to get better.
And you are soooo right about how cool it is to be gaining so much more information about this complex and miraculous organ.

[WritersBlock]

24. DBS is *FAR* from painless. One of my best friends has had it twice. It was excrutiatingly painful.

It may be a godsend for some, but it's certainly not painless. Or at least it wasn't for my friend.

[fshrink]

18. This is not understanding. This is Home Mechanics.

[olddad56]

21. How did they do it? I already forgot.

[Uben]

25. Use it on Alberto Gonzales!

Maybe the bastard could remember something then!

[Buns_of_Fire]

27. At 57, I'm discovering that I have a pretty good memory...

...but that's NOT necessarily a blessing, trust me.

It's like being haunted. A certain word spoken with the right inflection, a certain aroma in the appropriate surroundings, and synapses fire and connections are made that I would just as soon lie in their slumber.

[Xipe Totec]

28. Did you ever read Funes the Memorious,

by Jorge Luis Borges?

[Buns_of_Fire]

29. No. But I will now. Thank you. (n/t)

[loves_dulcinea]

39. dude!

i can so relate...

[BootinUp]

30. They figured that out on Star Trek TNG years ago. pffft.

[progressive_realist]

31. I wonder how much of the memory is real

And how much is being constructed at the time of stimulation? From what I know about how memory works, your brain doesn't store all of the details about any given scene. It only stores what it considers the critical elements, and then reconstructs the rest from generic mental elements when you recall the memory. The idea that the brain stores perfect photographic memories is, I think, pure fiction.

My guess is that the electrode stimulation is causing the brain to recombine existing memory elements into novel combinations, i.e. false memories.

[Pale Blue Dot]

34. That was a question I had as well.

Either way, it's fascinating.

[Javaman]

32. Damn it, I forgot what I was going to write! nt

[AngryAmish]

33. Imagine this used as a torture device

Everyone has bad memories - things that they are able to forget. Soldiers at war see horrific things. Police, doctors. Even normal people have done things that are deeply humiliating.

The ability to forget things enables us to live life. It is a defense mechanism. That is why the so called "grief counselors" who force people to relive terrible events do so much harm.

Now imagine having to relive these things, in exquisite detail, over and over again. It could drive a person to suicide.

[ProfessorGAC]

35. I Knew All That. I Just Forgot About It!

Actually this is kind of cool. I hope the future research pans out they way they hope.
The Professor

[bean fidhleir]

37. Wilder Penfield researched electrical memory stimulation in 1948

He found that, with appropriate stimulation, inaccessible memories could be retrieved "in technicolor", as it were.

The idea of using it to work around Alzheimer's effects, though, sounds very good - IF Alzheimer's is only a can't-find-the-info problem (I'd thought it was a info-is-deleted problem).

[Zhade]

40. Now imagine this technique applied to a healthy brain.

Science fiction is becoming science fact.

(Notice how religion never does that?)