News reports of research into memory August 2002
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You can find links to the journals referred to on this site here: Journal links
August 2002
In a double-blind study of 230 healthy seniors, half of whom were
given gingko biloba and half a placebo, ginkgo
biloba was found to have no beneficial effect on memory and related
mental functions after six weeks (the manufacturer claims beneficial
effects can be noticed after four weeks).
The study was reported in the Aug. 21st issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association.
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/wc-gfi081602.php
Research in rats has found that linoleic
acid improved not only blood pressure, but also hypertension-induced
memory decline, suggesting that the early incorporation of linoleic
acid in the diet, may not only help in controlling hypertension, but
may also improve hypertension-induced cognitive impairment. Linoleic
acid is found in vegetable seed oils, such as safflower, sunflower,
and hemp seed.
The findings were presented at an American Physiological Society
(APS) intersociety meeting.
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/aps-mk082602.php
A series of experiments on genetically altered
laboratory mice showed those with low levels of the enzyme protein
phosphatase-1 (PP1), were less likely to forget what they had
learned. This enzyme appears to be critical in helping us forget
unwanted information, but it may also be partly responsible for an
increase in forgetting in older adults. It was found that as the
mice aged, the level of PP1 increased. When the action of PP1 was
blocked, the mice recovered their full learning and memory
abilities.
The report appeared in the 29 August issue of
Nature.
Full reference
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/08/29/MN2052.DTL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2222871.stm
Recognition of familiar faces occurs largely
in the right side of the brain, but new research suggests that
identifying your own face occurs more in the left side of your
brain. Evidence for this comes from a split-brain patient (a person
whose corpus callosum – the main bridge of nerve fibers between the
two hemispheres of the brain - has been severed to minimize the
spread of epileptic seizure activity). The finding needs to be
confirmed in studies of people with intact brains, but it suggests
not only that there is a distinction between recognizing your self
and recognizing other people you know well, but also that memories
and knowledge about oneself may be stored largely in the left
hemisphere.
The report appeared in the September issue of
Nature Neuroscience.
Full reference
http://www.nature.com/neurolink/v5/n9/abs/nn907.html
http://www.sciencenews.org/20020824/fob8.asp
In a new imaging study, Duke University researchers have shown
how emotional stimuli and "attentional
functions" like driving move in parallel streams through the brain
before being integrated in a specific part of the brain's prefrontal
cortex (the anterior cingulate, which is located between the right
and left halves). Emotional stimuli are thus more likely than simple
distractions to interfere with a person's efforts to focus on a task
such as driving. These findings may help us understand the neural
dynamics underlying emotional distractibility on attentional tasks
in affective disorders.
The results appeared in the August 20 issue of
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Full reference
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.182176499
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/99/17/11447
An imaging study investigating brain
activation when people were asked to answer yes or no to statements
about themselves (e.g. 'I forget important things', 'I'm a good
friend', 'I have a quick temper'), found consistent activation in
the anterior medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate. This is
consistent with lesion studies, and suggests that these areas of the
cortex are involved in self-reflective thought.
The study was reported in the August issue of
Brain.
Full reference
http://brain.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/125/8/1808
The body secretes a hormone called cortisol
in response to stress. Areas of the brain involved in memory and
problem-solving are responsive to cortisol. A new study has found
impaired release of cortisol in recently detoxified alcoholics when
performing two tasks known to induce stress: mental arithmetic
problems and a "cold pressor" task, which requires submerging one
hand in ice water for 90 seconds. This was associated with lower
scores on measures of problem-solving ability and memory. The study
also found that, among alcoholics, the number of withdrawals from
alcohol was the strongest predictor of memory impairments, but not
of problem-solving ability. The greater the alcoholics' relative
cortisol levels were during alcohol withdrawal, the more likely they
were to have low scores on one of the problem-solving tests.
Nonalcoholic participants showed a connection between higher
post-stress cortisol levels and impaired memory, a finding supported
by earlier research.
The study was published in the August issue of
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/cfta-air080902.php
The disorders associated with
fetal exposure to alcohol are a leading cause of mental
retardation and developmental delay.Research with rats has looked at
the effect of motor skill training on the development of rats
similarly exposed to alcohol at a critical stage of their prenatal
development. Those rats trained in increasingly difficult challenges
involving motor skills were found to develop 20% more synapses in
the cerebellum than the rats that did not train, even though they
had the expected 30% loss of Purkinje cells. The research brings
hope that, despite the damage done to the motor function, it may be
possible to rehabilitate these deficits if caught early enough.
The study was published in the 24 May issue of
Brain Research.
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/uoia-cpl080702.php
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