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One gene appears to regulate the brain’s ability to form new memories
- Serentiynow 15y agoI wonder if it is possible to make a drug that activates the Npas4 gene. A smart drug that would make you remember better could help old people. People who have great memory might more easily activate the Npas4 gene. Could this be measured?
- onemoreact 15y agoIt's vary unlikely that a single gene does more than harm memory creation if missing. If for no other reason than we call several different processes 'memory' even though physically learning a skill is different from memorizing a poem or remembering where your key's are.
- ams6110 15y agoEver read Flowers for Algernon?
- jaylevitt 15y agoRead it? Hell, I live it every day. I just never know which half of the book it's going to be.
- omarchowdhury 15y agoWhat is a gene?
- kghose 15y agoA gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene)
- amirmc 15y agoOff topic: I'm really happy that the pic is of a scientist who is not in a white coat.
- zerostar07 15y agoOriginal article: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6063/1669.abstract http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6063/1669.abstract Long term memory formation presumably involves protein synthesis, which depends on a number of transcription factors and other molecules. Up until now the most studied transcription factor is CREB, which has been shown to enhance, inhibit, and direct memory in cells, depending on the manipulation. They now identify one gene, but it's not the only one; there's probably many other factors, proteins and second messengers involved. Similar results of npas4 knockout have been reported in the amygdala: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0023760 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...