UCLA scientists boost memory by stimulating key site in brain

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UCLA Newsroom

Mechanism holds potential for improving recall in dementia patients
By Elaine Schmidt

Have you 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," said senior author Dr. Itzhak Fried, a 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," Fried said. "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 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," Fried said. "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 co-authors included first author Nanthia Suthana, 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.

Expertise counts with deep brain stimulation

Chicago Tribune
Judith Graham

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Expertise counts with deep brain stimulation
With deep brain stimulation, as with many complicated medical procedures, it’s important to evaluate the expertise of physicians and hospitals before signing up as a patient.

This expensive treatment—it costs up to $150,000 or more--is now being offered by more than 300 medical centers across the U.S.

In a story today, I examine how physicians and scientists are exploring the use of the therapy for a variety of neurological and psychological conditions.

Currently, deep brain stimulation is approved by the Food and Drug Administration only for use in patients with Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Patients with dystonia can also get the treatment under a FDA humanitarian device exemption.

Hospitals’ experience with this therapy varies widely. Some centers treat up to 100 or more patients a year; others treat only a handful.

Some medical centers do extraordinarily careful workups to identify patients most likely to benefit from deep brain stimulation; others don’t.

Not all physicians carefully monitor patients who’ve had the procedure to make sure they’re deriving the maximum possible benefit.

And not all surgeons are expert at placing electrodes at exactly the right spot in the brains of patients. If the electrode is 1 or 2 millimeters off target.....read the rest of the story and comments

Deep Brain Stimulation Inexplicably Restores Vivid Memories

Natural News.com

Scientists searching for a way to suppress appetite accidentally discovered a way to trigger vivid memories. The researchers hope to develop the technique into a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in Annals of Neurology.

Researchers at the Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, Canada, were operating on an obese man in an attempt to find a part of the brain that could suppress the appetite when stimulated electrically. When the scientists stimulated the hypothalamus, which has been associated with hunger, the man suddenly experienced a vivid memory from 30 years before.

"He reported the experience of.....read the whole article