Link

The Era of Memory Engineering has Arrived

“We allow that our memories may fade and fail a bit, but otherwise, we go on the sanity-preserving assumption that there is one reason why we remember a particular thing: because we were there, and it actually happened. Now, a new set of experiments, led by MIT neuroscientists Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu in Susumu Tonegawa’s lab, shows that this needn’t be the case. Using a stunning set of molecular neuroscience techniques (no electrode caps involved), these scientists have captured specific memories in mice, altered them, and shown that the mice behave in accord with these new, false, implanted memories. The era of memory engineering is upon us, and naturally, there are big implications for basic science and, perhaps someday, human health and society…

…Naturally, one wonders whether these techniques might someday find human applications. Perhaps it would be possible to rebuild particularly cherished and important memories that have deteriorated with age or disease? Or perhaps, more provocatively, some might even embrace the idea of falsified memory – artificially adding in happiness where there is only remembered pain, or subtracting out enduring despair that’s long outlived its usefulness. These are some ethically tricky situations, to be sure. At the same time, though, it’s hard to not sympathize with someone, say a war veteran or a rape victim, who might want the emotional content of a specific, life-destroying memory modified.”

Link

Childhood Poverty Link to Dementia

“A study by the University of Washington – published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology – links an impoverished childhood with the later development of dementia.”

 

Link

Race, Gender, and Alzheimer’s Disease

“Women are statistically more likely than men to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. While 16 percent of women over 71 years old develop the degenerative brain disorder, only 11 percent of men of the same age are afflicted with it… Research also indicates that in the U.S. African-Americans are about twice as likely—and Hispanics one and a half times more likely—than older whites to get Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.  This is becoming a bigger concern than ever, as African-Americans and Hispanics will make up a larger proportion of the U.S. population over the next few decades.”

Proportion of Americans Aged 55 and Older with Cognitive Impairment, by Race/Ethnicity, Health and Retirement Study, 2006

Link

Carboncopies: Realistic Routes to Substrate Independent Minds

“Carboncopies.org is a nonprofit organisation with a goal of advancing the reverse engineering of neural tissue and complete brains, Whole Brain Emulation and development of neuroprostheses that reproduce functions of mind, creating what we call Substrate-Independent Minds (SIM).”

Link

Gender-Based Differences in Alzheimer’s

“All patients with Alzheimer’s disease lose brain cells, which leads to a shrinking, or atrophy, of the brain. But the pattern of gray matter loss is significantly different in men and women, according to a new study.”

Link

Alzheimer’s and Personhood

“The way that people understand and relate to each other contributes towards the acknowledgement or development and maintenance of personhood. Nevertheless, being an actual person in the first place is important and determining what or who is a person involves setting boundaries (Baldwin and Capstick, 2007). Where someone falls in relation to those boundaries will determine whether s/he is considered a person or a ‘non-person’.”

Link

The Self That Remains When Memory is Lost

“Professor Pribram felt that when we lose our memory, we lose our entire sense of self. When I saw Tom, something fundamentally Tom was still there. Some of us call it personality, or essence. Some call it the “soul.” Whatever it is, the tumor that took Tom’s memory had not touched it.”

Link

Music and Memory

“MUSIC & MEMORY℠ is a non-profit organization that brings personalized music into the lives of the elderly or infirm through digital music technology, vastly improving quality of life. We train nursing home staff and other elder care professionals, as well as family caregivers, how to create and provide personalized playlists using iPods and related digital audio systems that enable those struggling with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other cognitive and physical challenges to reconnect with the world through music-triggered memories. By providing access and education, and by creating a network of MUSIC & MEMORY℠ Certified elder care facilities, we aim to make this form of personalized therapeutic music a standard of care throughout the health care industry.”

Link

ARTZ: Artists for Alzheimer’s

“Art reveals to us the essence of things, the essence of our existence.”

– Rudolf Arnheim

(Glacier: a painting by a person with Alzheimer’s Disease through the ARTZ initiative)

Link

The Raw Horror of Alzheimer’s

“…this is not another guide to be added to the depressing pile by the bedside for those who are confronting the decline of a relative. It is as much an exploration of memory, its loss and the subsequent erosion of personality, as a chronicle of the destructive chaos that the onset of Alzheimer’s unleashes on the extended family. It is also a chronicle of Gillies’ own unravelling, as the exhausting, thankless realities of a carer’s role overwhelm her.”