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Volatility of Human Memory
prostoalex writes "Scientific Americans looks into the human brain, trying to figure out why some events just tend to stick in our memories forever, while the others are gone: "How does a gene "know" when to strengthen a synapse permanently and when to let a fleeting moment fade unrecorded? And how do the proteins encoded by the gene "know" which of thousands of synapses to strengthen? The same questions have implications for understanding fetal brain development, a time when the brain is deciding which synaptic connections to keep and which to discard. In studying that phenomenon, my lab came up with an intriguing solution to one of these mysteries of memory.""
I haven't RTFA but...
How does a synapse know whether to remember something or not... answer - it doesn't. What we remember is only related to what synapses still function, so it something breaks, we don't remember that particular piece of information.
I personally think that the source of all human illness is basically the body forgetting how to maintain itself... critical synapses failing. But what would I know?
The protein you're talking about appears to be CREB (I love how 90% of slashdotters feel compelled to post their opinions without reading the f'ing article :) For a good couple of years now, we've known that transgenic fruit flies -- and recently mice, if I'm not mistaken -- engineered to over-express CREB do have strikingly improved memory... but not in the way you think. These flies don't appear to form "more" memories, instead they just learn faster. In other words long-term potentiation seems to happen with less training/effort.
What this means for us humans -- if it means anything at all -- is pretty questionable. However if you want to go out on a limb here, drugs or genetic modifications to increase CREB production could make you learn things faster, without sacrificing that important relevance filter (i.e. remembering every license plate you see or whatever).
Knocking out all the extracellular matrix will knock out memory like knocking out all cement will disrupt the highway system. Is cement the "key" to our transportation system? NO, but its one part that works in the greater system. We traveled before we had cement. Among other countless features found in memory cortex, you need specialized long term neurons, long term glia, vasculature and the ex-cell matrix to all work harmoniously to maintain memories long term. In Alzheimers you lose even the long term memories and what you see is a decrease in neuron number as well as disruption of accessory cells (glia/vasculature) and disruption of the ex-cell matrix. The hallmark being neuronal dropout.
Doesn't it also need some type of nueral-electrical stimulus to get it to contract? Muscle just doesn't contract/relax on its own. It needs some sort of external stimulus.
As an aside, doesn't the main nerve (can't remember name and too lazy to Google) that carries the impulse to the heart generate a 60Hz pulse. I remember reading that was why so many (low voltage) electrocution deaths in the US were due more to heart failure rather than tissue and burn damage.
"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"