Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory - Electrodes in the brain

Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory - Electrodes in the brain

www.independent.co.uk

Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works.

The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.

(visit the link for the full news article)

So many impressive discoveries we have made have been accidental -



Even though this technology has been available for a while for different uses - Parkinsons or Pain treatment - this one is HUGE. Alzheimers has another possible treatment...or even cure!

www.independent.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Gotta love it, but from what I understand from another ATS thread, we've cured Alzheimers with spinal taps etc.

Excellent find, Thank you OP. Just learning about the possibilities will bring new thinking to the future scientists of the world. Who knows where this discovery will take us? Every post counts.
DWT

reply to post by Quazga


There was an earlier article/post about an intraspinal infusion of Enbrel that did work rather quickly (by interacting with the Alpha TNF). The questions with this are 1 - safety (there is an infection risk - and it would have to be done more than once) and 2 - it doesn't reduce the amount of plaque around the neurons (neither does the electrodes in the brain here). These two used in combination may be enough to hold off the disease until there is a vaccine or other med that will break down the plaque buildup in the brain.
At the heart of the issue is we still do not know enough about the brain and how it works. The Enbrel discovery as by accident. The electrode option is currently used in Parkinson patients (this is just another application).
Cure is a strong word - extra electrical input from the implant may be a cure by bypassing the damaged area with the electrical current. It may also be harmful, just like the Enbrel, over a long period of time.
Continued study needs to be done. But the more and different treatment options, the better. Now we have more than Aricept, Exelon, Razadyne (all the same class) and Namenda (just a few drugs for the treatment - not for any behavior modification, etc).

great news! Somewehere on the net I seen the statement that the best xbox is 1% of the brain capacity .. i wonder what is really happening in our brain!? I see that in 30 years from now we will be able to build extensions to our brain and eventually transfer ourselfes into machine.. (except the soul



[edit on 30-1-2008 by sty]

reply to post by sty


So the original XBOX has 1% of our brain capacity - do you mean memory or "computing power"?
The structure of the brain has a layout that doesn't seem natural. The visual center of the brain is in the back of the head, the brain stem (that controls breathing/heart rate) is not in the deep center of the brain but in the back/lower part by the base of the skull.
A computer layout and design can always be changed and upgraded - right now we are ahead, but one day may be obsolete. To match brain power, we would need a computer to run at 20 million billion calculations per second. For memory, it would require a 10 Petabyte hard drive (10 thousand 1 terabyte hard drives - the terabyte hard drive just became available for about 300 dollars).
So alot of room and power needed for this...

Here is a great article on it - good for a scare.
www.kurzweilai.net.../articles/art0157.html?