Sunday, August 26, 2007

Process For Storing And Erasing Long-term Memories Discovered

From Science Daily -

The question:

"Are memories recorded in a stable physical change, like writing an inscription permanently on a clay tablet?"


Their expirement:

"Dudai and research student Reut Shema, together with Todd Sacktor of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, trained rats to avoid certain tastes. They then injected a drug to block a specific protein into the taste cortex -- an area of the brain associated with taste memory. They hypothesized, on the basis of earlier research by Sacktor, that this protein, an enzyme called PKMzeta, acts as a miniature memory "machine" that keeps memory up and running. An enzyme causes structural and functional changes in other proteins: PKMzeta, located in the synapses -- the functional contact points between nerve cells -- changes some facets of the structure of synaptic contacts.
It must be persistently active, however, to maintain this change, which is brought about by learning. Silencing PKMzeta, reasoned the scientists, should reverse the change in the synapse. And this is exactly what happened: Regardless of the taste the rats were trained to avoid, they forget their learned aversion after a single application of the drug."


Their conclusion:

("This drug is a molecular version of jamming the operation of the machine," says Dudai. "When the machine stops, the memories stop as well." In other words, long-term memory is not a one-time inscription on the nerve network, but an ongoing process which the brain must continuously fuel and maintain. These findings raise the possibility of developing future, drug-based approaches for boosting and stabilizing memory.)

Monday, August 13, 2007

Don't read this

This isn't exactly the type of post I was hoping to get back to : (

I'm so tired... I'm tired of trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do. Tired of not being able to focus more on my family, and less on this curse. What's a ghost to do?

Monday, August 6, 2007

Tired

Is anybody out there?



Hey! I'm still here. I've just been a little more tired than usual. It so happens, that my thyroid hormones are a little on the low side. My damned thyroid is underactive. However, because of another test result, the source may not be the thyroid but the pituitary gland. Regardless, I feel soooooo tired almost all the time. It's a chore just to walk sometimes. I'll see an endocrinologist soon, hopefully. Probably some radiologic exams to follow. I'm just so tired of feeling so tired?



If anyone cares, I won't be posting as often as I was. Hopefully, this is just temporary. As soon as I begin feeling better I hope to begin posting more frequently.