Unlocking the mysteries of memory(ed located these neurons in the hippocam...),Health

Date:12/4/2008

ed located these neurons in the hippocampus of the brain, an important finding in the study. This is the area of the brain affected in Alzheimer's patients, critical for memory formation and recall. A small part of the brain shaped like a sea horse, the hippocampus stores short-term "episodic" memories: not long-term memories of your childhood, but short-term memories like what you ate for breakfast.

Loss of function in this area of the brain in Alzheimer's patients explains why they become disoriented in familiar surroundings. "This is the structure in which people lay down new memories and process them," says Prof. Fried, noting that in his recent study cells were very active in this area. These same cells spring back to life when this new memory is spontaneously recalled in experimental subjects.

From Proust to George Costanza and Homer Simpson?

In the study, Prof. Fried observed the neural activity in the brains of 13 epilepsy patients, as the patients watched clips from TV shows like Seinfeld and The Simpsons. A short while after, the test subjects were asked to describe what they remembered from the video clips. During recall, the exact same neurons that had fired while viewing a clip fired once again while the subject was recalling it. Soon, the researchers were able to predict what clip the subjects would recall just by looking at the neurons that lit up seconds before the recall experience was vocalized.

Prof. Fried, who is associated with Israel's Ichilov Hospital, plans to continue research that will give science a better understanding of how memories are formed. Prof. Fried says that "the emergence of memory, a trace of things past, into human consciousness is one of the greatest mysteries of the human mind." Prof. Fried believes that memories are formed by associations. and is curious to discover exactly how these associations are formed and then retrieved from the hippocampus.

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Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University Source:Eurekalert

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