From the MIT Technology Review, the story is here. Money quote:
a growing army of like-minded researchers have marshaled a pile of data to argue that we can alter the emotional impact of a memory by adding new information to it or recalling it in a different context.
I suppose learning that the C+ you scored on the final exam was actually the best grade in the class would change a bad memory into a good one…
Lots of different theories, story here. I’m fond of the notion that the frequency of diverse episodes is greater during out twenties and that this increased frequency of episodic memories enhances the overall memory for that decade.
Here’s a start on reading for the Fall–Benedict Carey’s piece in today’s NY Times about memory.
What researchers are finding is that there is no single “identity spot” in the brain. Instead, the brain uses several different neural regions, working closely together, to sustain and update the identities of self and others. Learning what makes identity, researchers say, will help doctors understand how some people preserve their identities in the face of creeping dementia, and how others, battling injuries like Adam’s, are sometimes able to reconstitute one.
The story of course is on Todd Sacktor and PKM zeta, a form of my own favorite molecule, protein kinase C.
From today’s NY Times….
In the study, researchers used high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging to map brain regions in 240 elderly subjects. They found a correlation between elevated blood glucose levels and reduced cerebral blood volume, or blood flow, in the dentate gyrus, an indication of reduced metabolic activity and function in that region of the brain.
And by the way: Happy New Year!
Jim
Discoverers and Discoveries 