Here is another post that follows through with this mornings theme:
In a world first, researchers at the Western Australian Centre for Health and AgeingI have discovered that a hormone controlling the release of testosterone is linked to poor memory in older men
According to a study published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, men with high levels of luteinising hormone (LH) had worse memory than those with lower levels. [continue reading…]
My two previous posts this morning focus on Alzheimer’s news. While researching the current posts I discovered Cambridge Brain Sciences -a website that provides scientifically proven tools for the assessment of cognitive function over the web. The Cambridge Brain Sciences concept was developed by Dr Adam Hampshire and Dr Adrian M. Owen at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit.
Members of the public and the wider scientific community can assess their cognitive function using rigorously tested and scientifically proven tests of memory, attention, reasoning and planning. All of the test made available on the site have been used in scientific studies of brain function by Dr Owen and his team at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and have been described in more than 150 scientific publications in leading academic journals.
Ive included a video demonstrating one of the tests. You can try one test from each Test Category without registering, or you can register your details to gain access to all of the tests and find out how you compare to other people like you. link to try tests
You might be interested to learn that chimps have been found to beat humans on this spatial memory test!
Source: Cambrige Brain Sciences
We have all had the embarrassing experience of seeing an acquaintance in an unfamiliar setting. We know we know them but can’t recall who they are. But with the correct cues from conversation or context, something seems to click and we can readily access very rich and vivid memories about the individual. [continue reading…]
Hobbie-J is a genetically engineered rat. Hobbie-J’s NR2B gene, (which controls memory), was boosted as an embryo. The rodent can remember objects three times as long as its smartest peers and can better solve complicated puzzles like mazes.
But even a super rat has its limits. For example with one test, the rats had to learn to alternate between right and left paths to get a chocolate reward. Both did well when they only had to wait a minute to repeat the task, after three minutes only Hobbie-J could remember and after five minutes, they both forgot. “We can never turn it into a mathematician. They are rats, after all,” Dr. Tsien says, noting that when it comes to truly complex thinking and memory, the size of the brain really does matter. Dr. Joe Z. Tsien is co-director of the MCG Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute and co-corresponding author on the paper published Oct. 19 in PLoS ONE (see http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007486). Dr. Xiaohua Cao at East China Normal University also is a co-corresponding author.
The finding validates NR2B as a drug target for improving memory in healthy individuals as well as those struggling with Alzheimer’s or mild dementia. Although it could take decades to develop a safe drug, the study is seen as an exciting development.
Source: University of Georgia
