In a study that could lead to targeted drugs for people suffering from dementia, researchers have found a way to erase long-term memory in rats without damaging their brains. The findings show long-term memories are not as secure as thought and challenge the idea that they stabilise after maturing from short-term memories, said Yadin Dudai, who led the study. In the study, published on Thursday in the journal Science, the US and Israeli researchers fed the rats saccharine, which made them sick and taught them to associate the taste with feeling unwell.
They then injected an enzyme inhibitor called ZIP into the rats' brains that blocked a protein, PKMzeta, which controls the flow of information involving memory between brain cells. After the injection, the rats did not remember the association with saccharine, no matter how long the researchers had trained them to do so, said Dudai, a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. This suggests a key mechanism in the brain works like a piece of machinery to store long-term memory, Dudai said. Once the machinery stops, memory shuts down.
|
