Photo: flickr
In experiments with mice that have early-stage Alzheimer's disease, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found memories are still stored in the brain but the condition prevents them from being accessed.
The scientists used a optogenetics, a technique that involves activating brain cells with light, in a proof-of-concept study showing missing memories may still exist in Alzheimer's patients' brains -- but scientists need a method to unlock them.
"The important point is, this a proof of concept," said Dr. Susumu Tonegawa, director of the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics, said in a press release. "That is, even if a memory seems to be gone, it is still there. It's a matter of how to retrieve it."
Category(s):Dementia
Source material from Journal Nature
