Looking to tap and unleash the hidden knowledge with lost memories too.
A medication for asthma that has been approved by the FDA and is being called “magic” by some has demonstrated the ability to bring back previously lost memories and reveal information that had been concealed.
It’s known that optogenetic therapy was also used to demonstrate the recovery of memories that appeared to be inaccessible; however, the relatively risk-free drug is non-invasive and achieves the same level of success. This novel approach could offer a new ray of hope for millions of people suffering from conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, or it could simply help everyday people remember important aspects of their lives that have been lost to the passage of time. If it is proven effective, this would be a significant step forward.
IS IT MORE FICTION THAN FACT : RESTORING MEMORIES
You must have seen and observed in fictional media, such as television and movies, it is sometimes possible to recover forgotten memories through the use of hypnosis (a technique known as “hypnotic regression”) or through other therapeutic methods, such as returning to a particular location or even being presented with a familiar stimulus. In actuality, the majority of these techniques do give some glimmer of hope, but in the vast majority of cases, memories that have been erased simply cannot be recovered.
From the University of Groningen in the Netherlands a group of researchers have zeroed in on the correlation between learning while sleep deprived and the difficulties in retrieving that knowledge in order to unlock the door to all of the forgotten memories and hidden knowledge that still remains stored within our brains. And according to their first findings, a medication for asthma that is both uncomplicated and risk-free and that is currently on the market might be the answer.
OPTOGENETIC STIMULATION GETS TIGHT COMPETITION BY ASTHMA DRUG TO RETRIEVE LOST MEMORIES
A neuroscientist at the University of Groningen Robbert Havekes says “Sleep deprivation affects memory processes however, every student knows that an answer that evaded them during the exam could spring up hours thereafter,” says Havekes. If this is the case, then the knowledge was indeed stored in the brain; however, it was merely difficult to recall.
This duality inspired Havekes and his colleagues to investigate whether or not they could mimic the process of remembering something specific, and then test out two distinct strategies to retrieve that memory in situations when it did not come back on its own.
So to begin with, they used genetic engineering to modify mice so that certain neurons in the mice’s brains would create a light-sensitive protein called channelrhodopsin. These neurons become active when the animal is learning something new. Researchers were able to assist mice in remembering a task they had previously learnt by shining a light onto specific nerve cells and activating the protein. This was done so that the mice could perform the activity.
According to Havekes, “In our investigations on sleep deprivation, we used this strategy to neurons in the hippocampus.” The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is responsible for storing both geospatial data and factual knowledge.
The next step is teaching the genetically modified mice the positions of a variety of distinct objects using a variety of different methods. Because the hippocampus is so important to spatial learning, they decided that trying to remember the position of anything would be the ideal way to determine whether or not their method could successfully revive a memory that had been lost. In addition to this, we purposefully prevented the other half of the mice from sleeping. A few days later, both groups of mice were given the identical test of their spatial memory, with the exception that one of the objects had been rearranged.
The mice that had been trained while they were sleep deprived failed to notice the moved object’s new location, which indicated that they had “lost” the memory in some way. On the other hand, the mice that had been “rested” were able to notice the change, which indicated that they still retained a memory that had been made days earlier. After that, the researchers bombarded the memory neurons of the mice that had been deprived of sleep with light in order to activate them, and an extraordinary thing occurred as a result.
Havekes explained that the animals were able to recall their original placements after being reintroduced to the challenge following the reactivation of the hippocampus neurons (responsible for storing the knowledge) with light. This demonstrates that, although being stored in the hippocampus during sleep deprivation, the information could not be retrieved in the absence of stimulus.The memory was intact, but the sleep-deprived mouse couldn’t access it, much like a student who stays up all night studying but then completely blanks on exam day. The memory had been stored all along; it was just inaccessible until the light was used to reactivate the corresponding part of the mouse’s brain.
If and when this technology is deployed to humans, beaming a laser directly onto the brain is likely to not be the preferred technique due to its extreme invasiveness and the genetic engineering component involved.With the hope of finding a less invasive approach, researchers experimented with roflumilast, an asthma medication previously approved by the FDA due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and activate brain neurons. And exactly as they had hoped, the medicine was just as successful as the genetically modified, light-activated technique in activating crucial neurons and restoring erased memories.
Similar to what was shown with direct stimulation of the neurons, “when we gave mice that were taught while sleep-deprived roflumilast soon before the second test, they recalled,” said Havekes.
CLINICALLY TREATING MEMORY LOSS AND ACCESSING HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE
In addition to their proposed memory-retrieval process, which they detail in the journal Current Biology, the researchers say that a key takeaway from the study is the possibility that a large amount of previously learned knowledge still resides in the brain but is merely inaccessible without direct stimulation. Recollections that have been retained for a long time but have faded over time, such as the name of one’s first love, can be examples of “hidden information,” as can monetarily significant memories, such as a forgotten password to a cryptocurrency wallet or the location of a long-lost treasure. However, the researchers believe their seemingly harmless method has the most promise in assisting people with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other forms of memory loss to reclaim the parts of their lives that have been lost due to the effects of disease.
People with age-related memory loss or early-stage Alzheimer’s disease may benefit from roflumilast because it “may be possible to increase the memory accessibility,” as put forth by Havekes. And perhaps, as we have with mice, we can stimulate certain memories to enable them fully retrievable again.
Although Havekes admits that “this is purely supposition,” he is confident that his work can function as a guidepost for researchers and pharmaceutical corporations in their pursuit of a cure for memory loss. Last but not least, the researcher is equally excited about the new avenues of inquiry his study has opened as he is about any potential discoveries it may have made.
“How does roflumilast restore access to these ‘hidden’ memories? As always with science, by addressing one question you get many new questions for free.” Havekes asks “What makes memories accessible or inaccessible?”
Points to be noted
- A medication for asthma has demonstrated the ability to bring back lost memories and reveal hidden information in a non-invasive way. 💊
- The University of Groningen in the Netherlands is exploring the connection between sleep deprivation and the retrieval of forgotten knowledge. 🧠
- Robbert Havekes and his colleagues have investigated the revival of lost memory in genetically modified mice by shining a light onto specific nerve cells. 🐭
- By testing the mice’s spatial memory, researchers found that the memory was intact but inaccessible during sleep deprivation, which was reactivated by the light stimulation on the hippocampus neurons. 💡
- The next step is to find a less invasive approach for human deployment, as direct laser stimulation on the brain is unlikely to be preferred. 🚀
- The majority of the memory recovery techniques in fictional media, such as hypnosis or returning to a familiar location, do not recover erased memories in reality. 🎬
- The researchers’ findings offer a new ray of hope for millions of people suffering from conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, or for everyday people to remember important aspects of their lives. 💫
#LostMemories #AsthmaMedication #Optogenetics #SleepDeprivation #MemoryRetrieval