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- Neocortex: The brain's outer mantle in which long term memories are stored.
- PKMzeta: an enzyme that constantly works to keep our memories alive
Todd Sacktor and his team from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, have just came through on a groundbreaking discovery on how changing levels of the enzyme PKMzeta in the certain ereas of the human brain can cause memory loss or memory recovery. They started with tests on rats. The enzyme worked such that that even rats who had learned to shun a certain sweet food because it made them nasous afterward quickly ate it up after a hormone that suppressed the PKMzeta was inserted into their neocortex. They also showed that when levels of PKMzeta increased, the rats would remember things that were simply hazy in their minds before. They harnessed a virus that would infect the neocortex and make the brain produce large amounts of the enzyme giving the animal a hightened sense of memory. Other approches to memory enhancement have recently been discovered but there is something about this one that sets it apart from the rest. PKMzeta does not have to be targeted at a single time in the memory, and "it is not dependent on exploiting time-limited windows when a memory becomes temporarily fragile and changeable." The ideas that the scientists for the future is possibly using this as a way to help manage horrible emotional memories in mental disorders and helping old people keep their memories safe from aging disorders. I think that if this is made open to humans in the future, this discovery could be also used on the crime scene where injured witnesses could use this to possibly elucidate what happened at the scene of a crime. This also brings up questions about whether you could somehow plant false memories in a person's head.
PICTURE BY SCIENCE DAILY
ScienceDaily. "Enzyme Enhances, Erases Long-Term Memories in Rats; Can Restore
Even Old, Fading Memories, Say Scientists." http://www.sciencedaily.com/
. Science Daily, n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2011/03/110304092111.htm>.
Hi Vishal,
ReplyDeleteI think this discovery is amazing because it could help people regain their memories even when they have forgotten them. You mentioned that this brings up the idea that we could implant false memories in people's minds. I think that would be a little more difficult because we would have to somehow make the memory and then somehow implant it. The PKMzeta only helps a person remember something that was already there. It could help those with traumatic memories and aged people, but it could also hurt those whose memories are, against their will, "erased" by the enzyme. Additionally, how would the scientists control which memories get erased or heightened in a person with a mental disorder?
Good job!
Hey Vishal,
ReplyDeleteI think this article is very interesting regarding the fact that people could regain their memory with PKMzeta. However, what I wonder is how do the scientists know that the rats actually do improve their memory? Also, I really like your insight in the end; it sounds like it could become the core of a movie such as Inception. Overall, great job! It was clearly written and I definitely learned something new.
Hi Vishal,
ReplyDeleteI think this article is really cool. It kind of reminds me of Inception. However, I don't understand how someone could remember something new if it had never been in their mind before. Also, how effective is the insertion of PKMzeta?