Monday, March 7, 2011

Enzyme found to make fading memories fresher, old wounds painful again

There's something of a saying that you can only remember the things you try to forget, but if you'd prefer to hang on to those photographic moments from Thunder Mountain back in 1991, a gaggle of gurus from the Weizmann Institute of Science just might have the magic elixir you've been yearning for. According to a newly published study on long-term memory revitalization, Reut Shema and colleagues found that boosting the amount of PKMzeta could potentially help one recall memories that were on the brink of being forgotten. In testing, lowering the levels of PKMzeta caused rats to lose track of memories more quickly, but the zany part is that boosting levels on a specific day helped animals recall memories from days prior -- days where they weren't having PKMzeta jacked into their system. Heaven help our legal system should this ever get FDA approval for use in humans.

Enzyme found to make fading memories fresher, old wounds painful again originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/07/enzyme-found-to-make-fading-memories-fresher-old-wounds-painful/

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