Major step forward in understanding how memory works

Our ability to remember the objects, places and people within our environment is essential for everyday life, although the importance of this is only fully appreciated when recognition memory beings to fail, as in Alzheimer’s disease.

By blocking certain mechanisms that control the way that nerve cells in the brain communicate, scientists from the University of Bristol have been able to prevent visual recognition memory in rats


A single neuron (centre) in the perirhinal cortex which is involved in memory processes. (Credit: Photo by Andy Doherty)

This demonstrates they have identified cellular and molecular mechanisms in the brain that may provide a key to understanding processes of recognition memory.

Read on ...

Brain exercises - better than Googling?

[Via the Psychology Today blog]

... Of course the big news in the brain training biz this week is that Dr. Gary Small, at UCLA, has shown that surfing the web is good for the aging brain, too. After scanning a group of seniors some of whom had been reading and others web-surfing, “The researchers found that both reading and searching the Internet increased activity in parts of the brain that control language, reading, memory and visual abilities. However, searching the Internet also boosted activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulate parts of the brain and that activity was two times more pronounced in those with experience using the web.”

Whether, in the end, this will turn out to be meaningful no one can yet say. After all, maybe looking things up in the Yellow Pages stimulates the frontal lobes, too. No one has done that study yet.

Read the whole article here ... http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/can039t-remember-what-i-forgot/200810/brain-exercises-better-googling