Scientists Identify The Processes That Makes Memories Permanent

Daily Mail: How memories become permanent: Scientists identify process that controls 'rhythmic' brain waves for the first time

* Sharp wave ripples play a key role in strengthening memories
* But the mechanism that forms their shape and rhythm had not been identified
* Now, a team of researchers have found they are formed by synaptic inhibition
* They also believe it 'could be main factor in memory consolidation'

In order to remember a skill or experience, the memory needs to be strengthened through a process called memory consolidation.

Although it is known that brain waves play a key role in this process, the mechanism that forms their shape and rhythm had not yet been determined – until now.

Researchers have discovered that one of the brain waves needed for consolidating memories is dominated by synaptic inhibition, which they believe 'could be a main factor in memory consolidation'.

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WNU Editor: I like their summary (at the bottom of this Daily Mail Post) on how to boost your memory.

Study: Memories Can Be Recovered In Just A Tenth Of A Second

Using a brain scanner (stock image), scientists have found memories can be recovered in a tenth of a second - around a third of the time needed to blink. The study also found retrieval can be obstructed by the use of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), in which a magnetic coil is placed on their head

Daily Mail: Your brain recovers memories faster than the blink of an eye: Retrieval happens FIVE times quicker than thought

* Events can be recalled in 100 milliseconds, compared to 300 for a blink
* Mechanism of memory recovery starts with activation of sensory areas
* The process can be interfered with by placing magnetic coils on the head

The blink of an eye is one of the fastest reactions the human body can make - but is a slow process compared to the recovery of memory.

Using a brain scanner, scientists have discovered that memories can be recovered in just a tenth of a second - around a third of the time needed to blink.

Previous research had estimated this at around five tenths of a second.

The researchers also found retrieval can be obstructed if the person is subjected to repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), in which a magnetic coil is placed on their head.

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Editor: That is definitely fast.

How Memories Are Formed

3D image of the hippocampus of a rat. Credit: © M. Pyka

A Glimpse Into The 3-D Brain: How Memories Form -- Science Daily

Summary: People who wish to know how memory works are forced to take a glimpse into the brain. They can now do so without bloodshed: Researchers have developed a new method for creating 3-D models of memory-relevant brain structures.

People who wish to know how memory works are forced to take a glimpse into the brain. They can now do so without bloodshed: RUB researchers have developed a new method for creating 3D models of memory-relevant brain structures. They published their results in the journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.

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My Comment: A first step (among many) on how memories are formed.

Brain Structures Are Different For Those With Excellent Autobiographical Memory

UC Irvine scientists have discovered intriguing differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every moment of their lives since about age 10. (Credit: © James Steidl / Fotolia)

Brains Are Different In People With Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (July 30, 2012) — UC Irvine scientists have discovered intriguing differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every moment of their lives since about age 10.

The phenomenon of highly superior autobiographical memory -- first documented in 2006 by UCI neurobiologist James McGaugh and colleagues in a woman identified as "AJ" -- has been profiled on CBS's "60 Minutes" and in hundreds of other media outlets. But a new paper in the peer-reviewed journal Neurobiology of Learning & Memory's July issue offers the first scientific findings about nearly a dozen people with this uncanny ability.

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Too Many Memories Cause Amnesia?

Image: Muharrem Oner/iStockphoto

Memories Clutter Brain In Amnesia -- Science News

Complex patterns slow down object recognition in patients with disorder.

In a paradoxical twist, people with amnesia can get bogged down by too many memories. Unwanted, irrelevant information crowds in and prevents amnesiac patients from recognizing objects, scientists report in the July 12 Neuron. The finding suggests that amnesia isn’t strictly a memory problem, and may even point out ways to help people with the disorder live more normally.

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My Comment: I can identify with this story.

How Memory Works

Image: Drawing from Gray's Anatomy

Why Is Memory So Good and So Bad? -- Scientific American

Explaining the memory paradox.

What did you eat for dinner one week ago today? Chances are, you can’t quite recall. But for at least a short while after your meal, you knew exactly what you ate, and could easily remember what was on your plate in great detail. What happened to your memory between then and now? Did it slowly fade away? Or did it vanish, all at once?

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My Comment: For one who finds it frustrating when he forgets important bits of information .... this is a must read.

Does Sugar Make You Stupid?

Does Sugar Make You Stupid? Study Suggests It Sabotages Learning And Memory -- Daily Mail

* Fructose is commonly added to processed foods such as soft drinks
* It was found to hamper memory and slow brain activity

Too much sugar could be making you stupid, according to researchers.

The suggestion follows tests in the laboratory comparing high-fructose corn syrup, which is six times sweeter than cane sugar and a common ingredient in processed foods, with omega-3 fatty acids, known to aid memory and learning.

In an experiment on rats, one group had a sugary diet for six weeks and another was fed healthily.

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My Comment: I will stick with the caffeine drinks to boost my learning and memory.

How Practice Rewires The Brain

(Credit: Marcos Andre, Wikimedia Commons)

Spine Tuning: Finding Physical Evidence of How Practice Rewires the Brain -- Scientific American

In kindergarten, several of my friends and I were very serious about learning to tie our shoes. I remember sitting on the edge of the playground, looping laces into bunny ears and twisting them into a knot over and over again until I had it just right. A few years later, whistling became my new challenge. On the car ride to school or walking between classes, I puckered my lips and blew, shifting my tongue like rudder to direct the air. Finally, after weeks of nothing but tuneless wooshing, I whistled my first note.

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My Comment: I guess there is some truth to the saying that "practice makes perfect".

A Genetic Link To Memory

Scientists have advanced understanding of the genetic components of Alzheimer's disease and of brain development. (Credit: © adimas / Fotolia)

Memory In Adults Impacted By Versions Of Four Genes -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2012) — Two research studies, co-led by UC Davis neurologist Charles DeCarli and conducted by an international team that included more than 80 scientists at 71 institutions in eight countries, has advanced understanding of the genetic components of Alzheimer's disease and of brain development. Both studies appear in the April 15 edition of the journal Nature Genetics.

The first study, based on a genetic analysis of more than 9,000 people, has found that certain versions of four genes may speed shrinkage of a brain region involved in making new memories. The brain area, known as the hippocampus, normally shrinks with age, but if the process speeds up, it could increase vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease, the research suggests.

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My Comment: I am approaching that age where memory is becoming an issue .... so faster please.

Building A Better Brain For Memory (Video)

How The Brain Remembers What Happens And When

Neuroscientists Identify How the Brain Remembers What Happens and When -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2011) — New York University neuroscientists have identified the parts of the brain we use to remember the timing of events within an episode. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, enhances our understanding of how memories are processed and provides a potential roadmap for addressing memory-related afflictions.

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Why Walking Will Boost Your memory

Memory Boost For Aging Adults: Take A Walk -- Live Science

Forget the brain puzzles, mild exercise such as walking can boost brain volume and improve memory in older adults, researchers have found.

"With a limited investment of time and effort you can produce fairly dramatic improvements in memory and brain health," senior researcher Arthur Kramer, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told LiveScience. "You can roll back the clock about two years."

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My Comment: Exercise is vital when it get older .... and the fun part is that it is fun.

Hormone Holds Promise As Memory Enhancer

From Live Science:

Could boosting your memory someday be as simple as popping a pill? Scientists found that rats injected with a hormone could remember better, even two weeks after the memory was formed.

The memory-boosting hormone was IGF2, which plays an important role in brain development. The researchers suggest that a better understanding of how this chemical works (IGF2 is short for insulin-like growth factor 2) might lead to drugs that enhance human brain power, particularly in individuals with Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

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My Comment: Faster please .... I am getting older, and my memory is not what it once was.

How Memories Are Made

Memories Are Made Like This – Sleeping On Them -- The Telegraph

If you want knowledge to stick then it is best to take a nap after absorbing it, claims new research.

Researchers in Germany showed that the brain is better during sleep than during wakefulness at resisting attempts to scramble or corrupt a recent memory.

Their study, published in Nature Neuroscience, provides new insights into the hugely complex process by which we store and retrieve deliberately acquired information – learning, in short.

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My Comment: Sleep ... I love to sleep.

Penn Study Shows Why Sleep Is Needed To Form Memories

From Science Codex:

PHILADELPHIA – If you ever argued with your mother when she told you to get some sleep after studying for an exam instead of pulling an all-nighter, you owe her an apology, because it turns out she's right. And now, scientists are beginning to understand why.

In research published this week in Neuron, Marcos Frank, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, postdoctoral researcher Sara Aton, PhD, and colleagues describe for the first time how cellular changes in the sleeping brain promote the formation of memories.

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Gene Limits Learning And Memory In Mice

Researchers have found that deleting the RGS14 gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2010) — Deleting a certain gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have found.

Mice with a disabled RGS14 gene are able to remember objects they'd explored and learn to navigate mazes better than regular mice, suggesting that RGS14's presence limits some forms of learning and memory.

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Why Some Memories Stick

Image: Faces that activate the same regions of the brain again and again are more likely to be remembered.Pasieka / Science Photo Library

From Nature News:

Repetitive neural responses may enhance recall of faces and words.

Practice makes perfect when it comes to remembering things, but exactly how that works has long been a mystery. A study published in Science this week1 indicates that reactivating neural patterns over and over again may etch items into the memory.

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Picking Our Brains: What Are Memories Made Of?

Want to forget a fright? (Image: WIN-Initiative/Getty)

From New Scientist:

MEMORIES are the basic stuff of thought. We access our stores of knowledge every time we perform a task, communicate through speech or formulate the simplest concepts. Yet the physical form of memory has long been mysterious. What changes occur in the brain when a new memory is encoded?

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Can You Alter Your Memory?

Image: Douglas Jones

From The Wall Street Journal:

Doctors Try New Therapy for Phobias; Taking the Sting Out Of Childhood Upsets.

Is it possible to permanently change your memories? A group of scientists thinks so. And their new techniques for altering memories are raising possibilities of one day treating people who suffer from phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety-related conditions.

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Traces Of The Past: Computer Algorithm Able To 'Read' Memories

To explore how memories are recorded, researchers showed volunteers three short films and asked them to memorize what they saw. The films were very simple, sharing a number of similar features -- all included a woman carrying out an everyday task in a typical urban street, and each film was the same length, seven seconds long. For example, one film showed a woman posting a letter. (Credit: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Mar. 11, 2010) — Computer programs have been able to predict which of three short films a person is thinking about, just by looking at their brain activity. The research, conducted by scientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London), provides further insight into how our memories are recorded.

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