Saturday, February 11, 2012

Memory Strengthened by Stimulating Key Site in Brain





Once again, the take home that is screaming at us in memory work is that in order to learn and remember material it is necessary to be come engaged in the material.  Hell make yourself write a blog post on the guff.  That is engaged.  Your memory may well make the necessary connections but it certainly will make the connections if you care.  That is why you recall pertinent data even decades later.

This is actually an excellent datum that has emerged in this item and a couple of other recent items.  If you wish to learn a subject, however annoying, plan to be actively engaged in the learning process no matter how idle the teacher may be.  It also explains why the personal interaction is so valuable in the class room setting.

Thus every teacher owes it to his students the task of getting them engaged in the material himself.  It should even start with a short lesson on the importance of engagement in the material.  We want to be excited about it even if it is dead boring.  We want to force that enthusiasm.

Perhaps throwing chalk is an appropriate tool:-)



Memory Strengthened by Stimulating Key Site in Brain

ScienceDaily (Feb. 8, 2012) — Ever gone to the movies and forgotten where you parked the car? New UCLA research may one day help you improve your memory.


UCLA neuroscientists have demonstrated that they can strengthen memory in human patients by stimulating a critical junction in the brain. Published in the Feb. 9 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the finding could lead to a new method for boosting memory in patients with early Alzheimer's disease.

The UCLA team focused on a brain site called the entorhinal cortex. Considered the doorway to the hippocampus, which helps form and store memories, the entorhinal cortex plays a crucial role in transforming daily experience into lasting memories.

"The entorhinal cortex is the golden gate to the brain's memory mainframe," explained senior author Dr. Itzhak Fried, professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Every visual and sensory experience that we eventually commit to memory funnels through that doorway to the hippocampus. Our brain cells must send signals through this hub in order to form memories that we can later consciously recall."

Fried and his colleagues followed seven epilepsy patients who already had electrodes implanted in their brains to pinpoint the origin of their seizures. The researchers monitored the electrodes to record neuron activity as memories were being formed.

Using a video game featuring a taxi cab, virtual passengers and a cyber city, the researchers tested whether deep-brain stimulation of the entorhinal cortex or the hippocampus altered recall. Patients played the role of cab drivers who picked up passengers and traveled across town to deliver them to one of six requested shops.

"When we stimulated the nerve fibers in the patients' entorhinal cortex during learning, they later recognized landmarks and navigated the routes more quickly," said Fried. "They even learned to take shortcuts, reflecting improved spatial memory.

"Critically, it was the stimulation at the gateway into the hippocampus - and not the hippocampus itself - that proved effective," he added.

The use of stimulation only during the learning phase suggests that patients need not undergo continuous stimulation to boost their memory, but only when they are trying to learn important information, Fried noted. This may lead the way to neuro-prosthetic devices that can switch on during specific stages of information processing or daily tasks.

Six million Americans and 30 million people worldwide are newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease each year. The progressive disorder is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and the fifth leading cause of death for those aged 65 and older.

"Losing our ability to remember recent events and form new memories is one of the most dreaded afflictions of the human condition," said Fried. "Our preliminary results provide evidence supporting a possible mechanism for enhancing memory, particularly as people age or suffer from early dementia. At the same time, we studied a small sample of patients, so our results should be interpreted with caution."

Future studies will determine whether deep-brain stimulation can enhance other types of recall, such as verbal and autobiographical memories. No adverse effects of the stimulation were reported by the seven patients.

Fried's coauthors included first author Nanthia Suthana, as well as Dr. Zulfi Haneef, Dr. John Stern, Roy Mukamel, Eric Behnke and Barbara Knowlton, all of UCLA. The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Dana Foundation.

3 comments:

  1. Excepcional filme para a época que foi produzido. A universalidade do cinema mudo, mesmo se não tivesse legendas consente com sua literatura visual a compreensão da estória. Lamento informá-lhes que ao nascer fui neuro-programada para espectro desse material, não apocalíptico. Mas previsível, na condição de projeção ao futuro! Aos homens leigos a ideia de transmissões do futuro, ou vidas do futuro para formatar o que para nós estar por vir, faz com que frequenciais determinem nossas ações, ciaram a imagem bíblica. Anjos, psicografias,10 mandamentos e vislumbradores foram alvejados por portais. Ser tida como promíscua, não faz de mim promíscua quando sofro curras e agressões por hipnose e biochips. Sou vítima e a minha vida nunca foi minha, com a Time Life implantada no brasil. Acordem estão usando a mídia para a tão presente mentira. Estou próxima dos 50 anos e são décadas de vida oferecida a orgia. A carne dos meus filhos também por insistência de vocês. Uma só casa no mundo todo com esse propósito.VEJAM o que nos causam, manipulam nossa vida para o sádico entretenimento de vocês!!!! BBB do crime encobre crime de curra. Não vejo ninguém que dá audiência ser currado ou agredido, nem meus pais que entregaram a nossa carne para a orgia do sucesso de múltiplos produtos. Não perdoo nada, nem ninguém! Vocês nunca perdoariam quem abusa de seus filhos!! Fabulam débitos com meu nome e transtornam minha vida financeira para justificar o crime e a me caluniar. Culpar a mim pelas ambições de ricos exploradores, transferir para mim a responsabilidades de catástrofes?!... COVARDES!!! Fica claro no filme que ela é vítima e apresentam como causadora de confusões.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j8Ba9rWhUg

    Metropolis (restoration trailer)
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    http://www.kino.com/metropolis/ Metropolis is a 1927 silent science fiction film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and Thea von Harbou. Lang and von...

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  2. Scientists make lots of hypotheses through their investigations, adjusting opinions (and reconciling past conflicting observations) based on the most recent data collected. One thing though screams out loud: do truths even exist?

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