News reports of research into memory January 2007

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January 2007

Folic acid supplementation may improve cognitive performance

A study involving 818 older adults with raised homocysteine levels and normal vitamin B12 levels found that those given daily folic acid supplements (800 micrograms) for 3 years had lower homocysteine levels and improved cognitive performance compared to those given a placebo.
The findings appeared in the January 20 issue of The Lancet. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/l-fas011707.php

Why learning a new language may make you forget your old one

The common experience of having difficulty remembering words in your native language when you’ve been immersed in a new language is called first-language attrition, and new research has revealed that it occurs because native language words that might distract us when we are mastering a new language are actively inhibited. The study also found that this inhibition lessened as students became more fluent with the new language, suggesting it principally occurs during the initial stages of second language learning.
The study appeared in the January issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070118094015.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/afps-anl011807.php
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/Wordmaster/2007-01-23-voa4.cfm

Diabetes drug shows promise for preventing brain injury from radiation therapy

Hope for preventing the memory and learning problems that cancer patients often experience after whole-brain radiation treatments comes from a rat study. Rats receiving the diabetes drug piolitazone (Actos®) before, during and after radiation treatments did not experience cognitive impairment. The drug is thought to work by preventing inflammation.
The findings appeared in the January 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology - Biology –Physics. Full reference
Full text available at http://tinyurl.com/37xglp
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/wfub-dds011007.php

People at genetic risk for Alzheimer's age mentally just like noncarriers

A long-running study involving 6,560 people has found that the so-called ‘Alzheimer’s gene’— the APOE4 allele — does not contribute to cognitive change during most of adulthood. There was no difference in cognitive performance between carriers and non-carriers prior to the development of dementia symptoms.
The findings appeared in the January issue of Neuropsychology. Full reference
Full text available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/neu2111.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/apa-pag010307.php

High-normal uric acid linked with mild cognitive impairment in the elderly

A study of 96 older adults has found that those with uric-acid levels at the high end of the normal range had the lowest scores on tests of mental processing speed, verbal memory and working memory. The correlation persisted even when controlled for age, sex, weight, race, education, diabetes, hypertension, smoking and alcohol abuse. Uric acid levels increase with age, and higher levels are linked with high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, Type 2 diabetes and the "metabolic syndrome" of abdominal obesity and insulin resistance — all known risk factors for dementia. Because uric acid levels are so easily tested, the finding may suggest a valuable biological marker for very early cognitive problems in old age.
The findings appeared in the January issue of Neuropsychology. Full reference
Full text available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/neu2111361.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/apa-hua122706.php

How we predict the future

A brain imaging study has revealed those regions involved in imagining future events are much the same as those regions involved in remembering past events, suggesting the brain apparently predicts the course of future events by imagining them taking place much like similar past ones. This is also consistent with observations from amnesic patients and very young children — that the capacity to predict the future depends on being able to remember the past. One set of regions that was more active while envisioning the future than while recollecting the past has been implicated in imagined (simulated) bodily movements, suggesting that we place future scenarios in well known visual–spatial contexts.
The open access paper was published online January 1 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Full reference
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanId=sa003&articleId=CFEBFD00-E7F2-99DF-3E7DCD24612A6C36
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6216913.stm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070102092224.htm

The finding is supported by another study, demonstrating that amnesic patients with primary damage to the hippocampus were markedly impaired at imagining new experiences in response to short verbal cues that outlined a range of simple commonplace scenarios. The patients were unable to visualize the whole experience in their mind's eye, seeing instead just a collection of separate images.
The study was published today in the January 30 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Full reference
Full text available at http://tinyurl.com/2jwpn3
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/wt-pwa011107.php

Sleep deprivation affects neurogenesis

A rat study has found that rats deprived of sleep for 72 hours had higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone, and produced significantly fewer new brain cells in a particular region of the hippocampus. Preventing corticosterone levels from rising also prevented the reduction in neurogenesis.
The findings were reported in the December 12 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Full reference
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6347043.stm

Genetic cause for word-finding disease

Primary Progressive Aphasia is a little-known form of dementia in which people lose the ability to express themselves and understand speech. People can begin to show symptoms of PPA as early as in their 40's and 50's. A new study has found has discovered a gene mutation in two unrelated families in which nearly all the siblings suffered from PPA. The mutations were not observed in the healthy siblings or in more than 200 controls.
The study was published in the January issue of Archives of Neurology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/nu-rdg011507.php

Neural bottleneck found that thwarts multi-tasking

An imaging study has revealed just why we can’t do two things at once. The bottleneck appears to occur at the lateral frontal and prefrontal cortex and the superior frontal cortex. Both areas are known to play a critical role in cognitive control. These brain regions responded to tasks irrespective of the senses involved, and could be seen to 'queue' neural activity — that is, a response to the second task was postponed until the response to the first was completed. Such queuing occurred when two tasks were presented within 300 milliseconds of each other, but not when the time gap was longer.
The results were published in the December 21 issue of Neuron. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/vu-nbf011807.php

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