http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Native peoples in regions where cameras are uncommon sometimes react with caution when their picture is taken. The fear that something must have been stolen from them to create the photo is often inescapable. On small scales, we know it is in fact impossible to measure something without changing its essential character in some way. One idea that has recently gained momentum, is that although our brains have mechanisms for unpacking past experience into a form where it can be consciously manipulated with the full power of the mind, mechanisms to repack those memories into the original form lack similar finesse. In this light, once touched, a memory is no longer exactly the same. A paper just published in PNAS takes a closer look at how memories are reconsolidated after their retrieval. In showing just how easy it is to change certain kinds of memories, the authors not only raise new concerns for eyewitness testimony in the courtroom, but may explain in part why such testimony often tends to accumulate doubt in the face of continued questioning. The implication is that this new knowledge may be useful in the treatment post traumatic stress in veterans and victims. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-wrong.html Neuroscience Tue, 21 May 2013 11:12:02 EST news288353383 (Medical Xpress)—If you want to read a mouse's mind, it takes some fluorescent protein and a tiny microscope implanted in the rodent's head. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-tool-minds-mice-video.html Neuroscience Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:20:01 EST news280513186 Older adults who have suffered from aphasia for a long time can nevertheless improve their language function and maintain these improvements in the long term, according to a study by Dr. Ana Inés Ansaldo, PhD, a researcher at the Research Centre of the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (University Geriatrics Institute of Montreal) and a professor in the School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at the Faculty of Medicine of Université de Montréal. The study was published in Brain and Language. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-intensive-aphasia-older-patients.html Neuroscience Wed, 09 Jan 2013 04:33:12 EST news276928315 Conventional wisdom in brain research says that you just used your hippocampus to answer that question, but that might not be the whole story. The context of place depends on not just how you got there, but also the things you see around you. A new study in Neuron provides evidence that a different part of the brain is important for understanding where you are based on the spatial layout of the objects in that place. The finding, in rats, has a direct analogy to primate neuroanatomy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-brain-rats-region-associates-space.html Neuroscience Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:00:10 EST news273926105 The feel-good hormone dopamine improves long-term memory. This is the finding of a team lead by Emrah Düzel, neuroscientist at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the University of Magdeburg. The researchers investigated test subjects ranging in age from 65 to 75 years, who were given a precursor of dopamine. Treated subjects performed better in a memory test than a comparison group, who had taken a placebo. The study provides new insights into the formation of long lasting memories and also has implications for understanding why memories fade more rapidly following the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The results appear in the Journal of Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-feel-good-hormone-memory.html Neuroscience Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:17:20 EST news271603025 (HealthDay)—Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is present in nearly half of patients with lacunar stroke, according to a study published online Aug. 18 in the Annals of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-mild-cognitive-decline-lacunar-patients.html Neuroscience Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:31:32 EST news265303882 Eating cocoa flavanols daily may improve mild cognitive impairment, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-consuming-flavanol-rich-cocoa-brain-function.html Cardiology Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:00:05 EST news264091961 Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have found a drug that boosts memory function in those with Down syndrome, a major milestone in the treatment of this genetic disorder that could significantly improve quality of life. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-memantine-drug-shown-memory-syndrome.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:37:14 EST news261751027 Alcoholism can disrupt memory functioning well before incurring the profound amnesia of Korsakoff's syndrome. For example, associative memory – used in remembering face-name associations – can be impaired in alcoholics. A study of the cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying this deficit, through testing of associative memory performance and processing in study participants during structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning, have found that impaired learning abilities are predominantly associated with cerebellar brain volumes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-alcoholism-short-term-effects-memory-functioning.html Addiction Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:00:06 EST news253810381 Nodding off in class may not be such a bad idea after all. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that going to sleep shortly after learning new material is most beneficial for recall. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-rest-info-effective.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:32:23 EST news251731931 Carriers of the so-called KIBRA T allele have better memories than those who don't have this gene variant. This means we can reject the theory that the brain of a non-bearer compensates for this. This is shown by researchers from Umea University in The Journal of Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-gene-variant-memory-brain.html Neuroscience Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:23:47 EST news238065794 Seeing and exploring both are necessary for stability in a person's episodic memory when taking in a new experience, say University of Oregon researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-personal-memory.html Neuroscience Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:28:06 EST news233245674 Memory is not a single process but is made up of several sub-processes relying on different areas of the brain. Episodic memory, the ability to remember specific events such as what you did yesterday, is known to be vulnerable to brain damage involving the hippocampus. The question is, what happens when damage to the hippocampus occurs very early in life? In a case study published in the September 2011 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, clinical neuropsychologists have reported that a child can develop normally despite severe damage to the hippocampus resulting from lack of oxygen in the first days of life. This supports the theory that the different aspects of memory rely on distinct areas of the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-recite-poem-days-earlier.html Neuroscience Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:14:43 EST news232276468 Almost everyone has experienced one memory triggering another, but explanations for that phenomenon have proved elusive. Now, University of Pennsylvania researchers have provided the first neurobiological evidence that memories formed in the same context become linked, the foundation of the theory of episodic memory. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-neural-signature-mental.html Neuroscience Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:51:13 EST news230226651 In a paper to be published today in the journal Science, a team of Boston University researchers under the direction of Michael Hasselmo, professor of psychology and director of Boston University's Computational Neurophysiology Laboratory, and Mark Brandon, a recent graduate of the Graduate Program for Neuroscience at Boston University, present findings that support the hypothesis that spatial coding by grid cells requires theta rhythm oscillations, and dissociates the mechanisms underlying the generation of entorhinal grid cell periodicity and head-direction selectivity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-probe-link-theta-rhythm-ability.html Neuroscience Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:00:20 EST news223217954