Mice Brainpower Boosted With Alteration of a Single Gene

Zothecula writes: By altering a single gene to inhibit the activity of an enzyme called phosphodiesterase (PDE4B), researchers have given mice the opportunity to see what an increase in intelligence is like. "They tended to learn faster, remember events longer and solve complex exercises better than ordinary mice. For example, the “brainy mice” showed a better ability than ordinary mice to recognize another mouse that they had been introduced to the day before (abstract). They were also quicker at learning the location of a hidden escape platform in a test called the Morris water maze. However, the PDE4B-inhibited mice also showed less recall of a fearful event after several days than ordinary mice." While many people would welcome such a treatment, the scientists say their research could lead to new treatments for those with cognitive disorders and age-related cognitive decline.

Comments

Flowers FROM Algernon?

[grasshoppa]

How smart are we talking here?

Loss of memory, or just loss of fear?

[Obfuscant]

However, the PDE4B-inhibited mice also showed less recall of a fearful event after several days than ordinary mice.

Perhaps being smarter enabled them to process the "fearful event", determine the cause of the fear, the amount of actual hazard and any risk mitigation actions they could take, and thus not be as "afeard" the next time that event happened?

That's what humans do. They get scared by something, realize that the fright was temporary and not based on an actual threat, and desensitize.

And my fist thought was "Flowers For Algernon", too.

Already done in humans for COPD.

[sims 2]

http://lungdiseasenews.com/201...

"Roflumilast works by inhibiting the activity of an enzyme called phosphodiesterase 4B (PDE4B)"

Maybe someone who's using it can tell us the side effects in humans.

Its also known by its commercial name Daliresp.