memo

Researchers Uncover Key Step In Manufacture of Memory Protein

A cellular enzyme appears to play a crucial role in the manufacture of a protein needed for long-term memory, according to a team of researchers led by scientists at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. The protein is known as mBDNF, which stands for mature brain-derived neurotrophic factor. In an earlier study, another team of...

Nanogen Issued Patent for Electronic Microarray With Memory

Nanogen, Inc. (Nasdaq: NGEN), developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced today that it was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,867,048, "Multiplexed Active Biologic Array" by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The '048 patent relates to a method of addressing one or more electrodes (or "test sites") across multiple rows and columns of a microarray. The patent also covers a method for storing th...

Rats infected as newborns grew up vulnerable to memory problems during an immune challenge

Underscoring the value of good prenatal care, new research suggests that early infection may create a cognitive vulnerability that appears later during stress on the immune system. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have reported that rats who experienced a one-time infection as newborns didn't learn as well as adult rats who were not infected as pups, after their immunity was c...

Structure-building cell signals also may influence learning and memory

A Burnham Institute study has found that one of the cell's largest families of signaling molecules, called ephrins, which are known to regulate the development of nerve cells, also controls nerve cells' ability to engulf critical chemicals and proteins for learning and memory. These findings, the first to link these molecular semaphores to this important nerve cell function, appear in the May iss...

Mice brains shrink during winter, impairing some learning and memory

The brains of one species of mouse actually shrink during the winter, causing the mice to have more difficulty with some types of learning, a new study found. This is one of the first studies to show...

Montreal researchers probe the genetic basis of memory

A group of Montreal researchers has discovered that GCN2, a protein in cells that inhibits the conversion of new information into long-term memory, may be a master regulator of the switch from short-term to long-term memory. Their paper Translational control of hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory by the eIF2a kinase GCN2, which was published in the August 25th issue of the journal Nature,...

New research shows why too much memory may be a bad thing

New research from Columbia University Medical Center may explain why people who are able to easily and accurately recall historical dates or long-ago events, may have a harder time with word recall or remembering the day’s current events. They may have too much memory ?making it harder to filter out information and increasing the time it takes for new short-term memories to be processed and store...

U of MN researchers reverse memory loss in mice

Researchers at the University of Minnesota were able to reverse memory loss in mice with significant brain degeneration for the first time, a breakthrough that offers hope to the estimated 4 million people living with Alzheimer's disease. Researchers first manipulated the genetic makeup of the mice so they developed dementia; the mice experienced memory loss that worsens over time and had...

Disrupting Cocaine-memories To Battle Addiction

Novel use of genetic testing methods helped public health officials control and limit the further spread of four outbreaks of foodborne hepatitis A virus in 2003 related to the consumption of green onions, according to a detailed analysis published in the October 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. The authors of the study, Joseph J. Amon, PhD, MSPH, and c...

Researchers know what you were about to say; fMRI used to detect memory storage and retrieval

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University have provided evidence that the act of recalling a memory is a bit like mental time travel. Their study, presented in the Dec. 23 edition of the journal Science, demonstrates that the same areas of the brain that are active during an event are activated when a person attem...

Team led by Carnegie Mellon University scientist finds first evidence of a living memory trace

An international team of scientists for the first time has detected a memory trace in a living animal after it has encountered a single, new stimulus. The research, done with honeybees sensing new odors, allows neuroscientists to peer within the living brain and explore short-term memory as never before, according to scientist Roberto Fernández Galán, a leading author on the report who is current...

Tracking the memory trace

Memory formation follows a dynamic pattern, allowing for retrieval from different areas of the brain, depending on when an organism needs to remember, said a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine. That is what Dr. Ron L. Davis, professor of molecular and cellular biology at BCM, theorizes, based on his most recent report on the topic that finds a memory trace in Drosophila or fruit flie...

Learning and memory stimulated by gut hormone

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found evidence that a hormone produced in the stomach directly stimulates the higher brain functions of spatial learning and memory development, and further suggests that we may learn best on an empty stomach. Published in the February 19 online issue of Nature Neuroscience by investigators at Yale and other institutes, the study showed that the...

Mechanism for memory revealed in neurons of electric fish

Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin studying electric fish have gained new insight into how memory is stored at the level of neurons. Dr. Harold Zakon, Dr. Jörg Oestreich and colleagues show that when electr...

Activation of a protein solidifies fear memory in the brain

When activated, a specific protein in the brain enhances long-term storage of fearful memories and strengthens previously established fearful memories, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this week in Nature Neuroscience. "This report is the first to demonstrate evidence of enhancements in memory reconsolidation in the brain," said the senior author, Jane Taylor, associate professor...

Chemical guidance of T cells leads to immunologic memory and long-term immunity

In the latest issue of the journal Nature, scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) describe a new understanding about how long-term immunity works--findings that may lead to new ways of thinking about how to enhance certain immune responses and how to improve vaccines. Led by immunologist Ronald Germain, M.D...

Neuroscientists discover new cell type that may help brain maintain memories of smells

Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have discovered a new cell type in the part of the brain that processes our sense of smell. This new cell type, the Blanes cell, is a member of a group of previously unstudied brain cells described by the Spanish neuroanatomist Blanes (pronounced blon ?es) in the late 1800s. Blanes cells have unusual properties which may help...

Mice lacking social memory molecule take bullying in stride

The social avoidance that normally develops when a mouse repeatedly experiences defeat by a dominant animal disappears when it lacks a gene for a memory molecule in a brain circuit for social learning, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered. Mice engineered to lack this memory molecule continued to welcome strange...

Confidence in memory performance helps older adults remember

Believing that you can retain a good memory even in your twilight years is the first step to achieving that goal. Those who believe they can control their memory are more likely to employ mnemonic strategies that help keep memory fit despite the march of time. These are the conclusions of a new Brandeis study published in the Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. The study demon...

Drug triggers body's mechanism to reverse aging effect on memory process

A drug made to enhance memory appears to trigger a natural mechanism in the brain that fully reverses age-related memory loss, even after the drug itself has left the body, according to researchers at UC Irvine. Professors Christine Gall and Gary Lynch, along with Associate Researcher Julie Lauterborn, were among a group of scientists who conducted studies on rats with a class of drugs kn...

Memory loss affects more of the brain than previously thought

Memory loss associated with early Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be linked to altered activity in several areas of the brain, according to a study in the July issue of Radiology. For the first time, researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., used a special, high-field- strength, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to study the brain activity of people wit...

Brain enzyme treatment relieves memory lapse in Alzheimer's mice

An enzyme that helps neurons rid themselves of excess or aberrant proteins is required for normal brain function, according to a new report in the August 25, 2006 issue of the journal Cell, published by Cell Press. What's more, by increasing brain levels of the enzyme in mice with Alzheimer's symptoms, the researchers found they could reverse lapses of memory characteristic of the debilitating di...

Mayo Clinic study suggests that a central nervous system viral infection can lead to memory deficits

In one of the first known laboratory studies that explores memory deficits associated with a viral infection of the central nervous system, Mayo Clinic researchers have evidence that this infection can lead to memory loss late in life. The study, which was conducted in animal models, suggests that over the lifetime of an individual, a picornavirus-related infection could possibly have a permanent...

Affymetrix 500K array used to identify memory gene

Affymetrix Inc. announced today that researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona have used the Affymetrix 500K Array to discover a gene--called Kibra--associated with memory performance in humans. The team's findings may be used to develop new medicines for memory-based diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's by providing scientists with a better u...

Proteins anchor memories in our brain

Scientists have discovered that autoimmunity can be triggered in the thymus, where the immune system's T cells develop, if T cells fail to recognize just one of the body's thousands of proteins as "self." The research confirms an emerging view that autoimmunity can start in this cradle of the immune system, and not only at the sites where autoimmune diseases emerge, such as the pancreas in the c...

How brain injury leads to seizures, memory problems

In a finding that may provide a scientific basis for eventual treatment, neurology researchers have shown that traumatic brain injury reduces the level of a protein that helps keep brain activity in balance. The resulting abnormal activity, in turn, is thought to be an underlying reason for seizures and memory defects experienced by people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI)....

A natural chemical found in strawberries boosts memory in healthy mice

Mothers have long exhorted their children to eat their fruit and vegetables. But once kids are beyond mom's watchful eye, the hated greens often go the way of Barbie dolls and power rangers. Now, there's another reason to reach for colorful fruits past adolescence. Fisetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid commonly found in strawberries and other fruits and vegetables, stimulates signaling...

Researchers discover mechanism that determines when detailed memories are retained

The levels of a chemical released by the brain determine how detailed a memory will later be, according to researchers at UC Irvine. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a brain chemical already established as being crucial for learning and memory, appears to be the key to adding details to a memory. In a study with rats, Norman Weinberger, research professor of neurobiology and behavior, a...

Hopkins researchers discover how brain protein might control memory

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have figured out how one particular protein contributes to long-term memory and helps the brain remember things longer than an hour or two. The findings are reported in two papers in the Nov. 9 issue of Neuron. The protein, called Arc, has been implicated in memory-linked behaviors ranging from song learning in birds to rodents being aware of 3-D space. In peop...

Memories: It's all in the packaging, scientists say

Researchers at UC Irvine have found that how much detail one remembers of an event depends on whether a certain portion of the brain is activated to "package" the memory. In experiments using functional...

Tracing the formation of long-term memory

The formation of long-term memory in fruit flies can be demonstrated by the influx of calcium into cells called mushroom body neurons that occurs after special training that includes periods of rest, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Neuron. "We have strong evidence that this is really a molecular change that...

Proteins necessary for brain development found to be critical for long-term memory

A type of protein crucial for the growth of brain cells during development appears to be equally important for the formation of long-term memories, according to researchers at UC Irvine. The findings could lead to a better understanding of, and treatments for, cognitive decline associated with normal aging and diseases such as Alzheimer's. The findings appear in the early online edition...

Early HIV treatment fails to restore memory T cells

Most of the body’s memory T cells vanish within weeks after a person is infected with the HIV virus. In a study from the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Bernard-Nocht Institute appearing in the international open-access journal PLoS Medicine, researchers report that these memory T cells, mostly found in the digestive tract, tend not to return to normal even after years of treatment for...

How the brain weaves a memory

Memories of events comprise many components--including sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. Somehow the many features of an episodic memory are woven together into a coherent whole, and researchers have had little understanding of how this binding takes place as the memories are processed by the brain's memory center, the hippocampus. A central question has been whether the hippocampus receives an...

Anticipation plays a powerful role in human memory, brain study finds

Psychologists have long known that memories of disturbing emotional events - such as an act of violence or the unexpected death of a loved one - are more vivid and deeply imprinted in the brain than mundane recollections of everyday matters. Probing deeper into how such memories form, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that the mere anticipation of a fearful sit...

Experience affects new neuron survival in adult brain; study sheds light on learning, memory

Experience in the early development of new neurons in specific brain regions affects their survival and activity in the adult brain, new research shows. How these new neurons store information about these experiences may explain how they can affect learning and memory in adults. A team of researchers headed by Fred Gage, PhD, of the Salk Institute, found that experience enhances the surv...

UCLA/Toronto researchers unlock key to memory storage in brain

Scientists know little about how the brain assigns cells to participate in encoding and storing memories. Now a UCLA/University of Toronto team has discovered that a protein called CREB controls the odds of a neuron playing a role in memory formation. The April 20 edition of Science reports the findings, which suggest a new approach for preserving memory in people suffering from Alzheimer's or...

Sleep enforces the temporal sequence in memory

We have usually quite strong memories of past events like an exciting holiday or a jolly birthday party. However it is not clear how the brain keeps track of the temporal sequence in such memories: did Paul spill a glass of wine before or after Mary left the party? Previous findings from a research group headed by Jan Born at the University of Lübeck have confirmed the widely held view th...

Mutation improves memory, may lead to memory-enhancing pill

A mind-altering mutation in mice results in an enhanced long-term memory, researchers report in the April 6, 2007 issue of the journal Cell, published by Cell Press. These findings point to a potential target for the development of a drug to treat memory loss, according to the researchers. The researchers studied a gene that normally increases levels of a natural memory-blocking protein. A...

Latent memory of cells comes to life

New Danish research has examined the mechanisms behind latent cell memory, which can come to life and cause previously non-existent capacities suddenly to appear. Special yeast cells for example, can abruptly change from being of a single sex to hermaphrodite. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have used mathematical models and computer simulations...