Alzheimer’s research - Memory discovery offers hope

Through the ages the wonders of science have never ceased to amaze. A chance discovery in a Canadian hospital during an operation on an obese man to try to suppress his appetite has uncovered a way of unlocking people’s memories.

When a part of the man’s brain was stimulated with electrodes, it did nothing to his appetite, but he suddenly recalled an incident of 30 years earlier in vivid detail. When the current was switched off, the memory stopped, but when the stimulation was increased the memory became even more vivid.

A pacemaker devise with electrodes to stimulate the brain was implanted in the man’s chest.

After just three weeks the man showed “striking improvements” in a couple of learning tests.

The Toronto hospital, which is currently performing deep brain stimulation on three patients with Alzheimer’s disease, reports promising results so far. Much research remains to be done, but the discovery has opened up ways of boosting the degenerating memory circuits of those afflicted with this dreaded disease.

While the procedures are currently expensive and there is a certain degree of risk for elderly patients, it could provide real savings in the longer term, because restoring the memory of people with Alzheimer’s could eliminate the need for constant supervision.

The disease in its advanced stages sometimes amounts to a virtual existence of the living dead. Bringing sufferers back from that state would be priceless, for those afflicted and especially their families. The discovery provides real hope.