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News reports of research into memory April 2002

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April 2002

A six-month double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study of 23 individuals with mild multiple sclerosis found that patients who took the herb Ginkgo biloba performed better on neuropsychological tests compared to those who took the inactive placebo.
The paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology on April 18 in Denver, Colorado. Reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-04/uoc--gbs041202.php

In the first study to use measures of both the mothers’ self report of their prenatal drug use, and infant meconium, which provided a physical measure of the amount of drug exposure, 415 cocaine-exposed infants born in Cleveland were compared to non-exposed infants on cognitive and motor development until age 2. Infants were tested at 6.5, 12 and 24 months. Mental retardation in the cocaine-exposed children at age 2 was 4.89 times higher than would be expected in the general population. The percentage of children with mild delays requiring intervention was almost double the rate of the high risk, non-cocaine group. The study also found that tobacco exposure had significant negative effects on infant development.
The report appeared in the April 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-04/cwru-a2y041602.php

A study of the post-mortem cerebral cortexes of six 12- to 17-year-olds and five 17- to 24-year-olds has revealed a number of physical differences between the adolescent and the adult brain. The average pyramidal soma size was 15.5 % smaller in the older age group, while a number of other measures (including cortical thickness and neural density) were slightly larger. These changes are thought to reflect certain cognitive changes that occur during adolescence - specifically, the increase in knowledge and understanding, and the decrease in the ability to acquire new sounds and speech patterns.
The paper was presented at the American Academy of Neurology 54th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, on April 19. Reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-04/aaon-bug040502.php

A study of the levels of estrogen and testosterone in 300 older men enrolled in a larger study of risk factors for osteoporosis in men found that a higher level of testosterone was associated with better performance on various cognitive tests. The level of estrogen had no apparent effect. The study looked only at natural levels of hormones, and it is too soon to say whether testosterone supplements would help prevent cognitive decline. Although some previous studies have suggested that testosterone might benefit the brain, most of these studies have been of younger men.
The study was published in the April issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Reference http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-04/uoc--tao041502.php

It has long been felt that learning and memory must require physical changes in neurons that increase their responsivity to other neurons, so that they will continue to respond in the long-term even in the absence of external stimuli. Until now, however, noone has been able to actually demonstrate that this long-term potentiation occurs during learning. A new direction has proved to be more successful. Investigation of changes in the amygdala (a part of the brain associated with emotional response) after rats had been trained to fear a sound, found that postsynaptic neurons in the amygdala failed to produce any noticeable increase in electrical current, suggesting they had already been potentiated by their presynaptic partners.
The study was reported in April 11 issue of Neuron. Full reference

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