Italians in short term memory breakthrough
Published: April 21, 2006
Italian researchers have helped find two genes that activate very-short term memory (VSTM) - a discovery that could hold the key to new therapy for memory loss in Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia .
“Up till now it was known that one gene affected the central nervous system in memory functions but scientists have long been predicting that more genetic factors were involved,” said lead researcher Alessandro Bertolino of Bari University .
“Now our study has shown, for the first time, that two genes interact to modify the activity of brain cells during a VSTM task,” he added .
VSTM, or working memory, kicks in when the brain is asked to briefly remember something like a phone number, without memorizing it .
Bertolino’s team, which included Rome University scientist Bruno Dallapiccola and Daniel Weinberger of America’s premier psychiatric research body, the National Institutes of Mental Health, found the two genes by looking at the brains of 60 people with Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans .
The genes appear to work by regulating the level of a neurotransmitter called dopamine in the prefrontal cortex when VSTM tasks are required, Bertolino said .
“Our findings could ease or even reverse the devastating memory loss seen in degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or schizophrenia,” he said .
Bertolini’s study appears in the latest edition of the Journal of Neuroscience
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