Sunday, May 13, 2007

New Research Sheds Light On Memory By Erasing It

From the Folks at Science Daily.

"For years, scientists have studied the molecular basis of memory storage, trying to find the molecules that store memory, just as DNA stores genetic memory. In an important study published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, Brandeis University researchers report for the first time that memory storage can be induced and then biochemically erased in slices of rat hippocampus by manipulating a so-called "memory molecule," a protein kinase known as CaMKII."

John Lisman and his Lab Group have been able to confirm that CaMKII is indeed a memory molecule.

Apparantly, they saturated mouse hippocampal memory stores, and then proceeded to "attack" CaMKII which then "chemically erased" old memory stores, after which they were able to insert new memories into the synapses.

This work will pave the way for future work in Alzheimer's and other diseases in which memory loss plays an important role.

This article may be of interests to PKD fans, also. Memory may not be what was originally remembered. As soon as one floods the hippocampus with the the CaMKII, (thus we have full memory capacity) how can they then selectively target certain memories before deleting them, and inserting false memories?

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