A drug that can make your old memories like new

zdw wrote: post #2

I'm guessing this will be used to enhance the gravitas of someone on the witness stand while talking about a past crime in 3... 2..

Smoking meth improves your memory too, but it's hard to imagine a bunch of cracked out tweakers being given extra credibility on the witness stand.

Re: A drug that can make your old memories like new

#5

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 04, 2011, 5:43 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #4

zdw wrote: post #2

I'm guessing this will be used to enhance the gravitas of someone on the witness stand while talking about a past crime in 3... 2..

Smoking meth improves your memory too, but it's hard to imagine a bunch of cracked out tweakers being given extra credibility on the witness stand.

[deleted]

Re: A drug that can make your old memories like new

#6

Post by treeface » Fri, Mar 04, 2011, 5:44 PM UTC

Does this exist somewhere that isn't behind a paywall? Or better yet...is there a good description anywhere of the methods used for the relative layman?

Edit: Ok I've been snooping around for articles on this and so far I've found these:

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/the-memory-virus...

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-enzyme-erases-long-term-...

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/mar2011/nimh-03.htm

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/70519/title/Enzym...

Re: A drug that can make your old memories like new

#7

Post by freesciencenow » Fri, Mar 04, 2011, 5:58 PM UTC

Paper seems to be behind a paywall. I've copied the full version here: http://209.20.67.195/misc/memoryenhancement.pdf

See my profile for why I do what I do. Please email me to let me know when my services are needed.

Re: A drug that can make your old memories like new

#8

Post by treeface » Fri, Mar 04, 2011, 6:25 PM UTC

freesciencenow wrote: post #7

Paper seems to be behind a paywall. I've copied the full version here: http://209.20.67.195/misc/memoryenhancement.pdf See my profile for why I do what I do. Please email me to let me know when my services are needed.

Nice job...well done. I've just downloaded this and reposted it to min.us:

http://min.us/mvjf9pl

Re: A drug that can make your old memories like new

#9

Post by dmc » Fri, Mar 04, 2011, 6:33 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #4

zdw wrote: post #2

I'm guessing this will be used to enhance the gravitas of someone on the witness stand while talking about a past crime in 3... 2..

Smoking meth improves your memory too, but it's hard to imagine a bunch of cracked out tweakers being given extra credibility on the witness stand.

The only memory-based effects of methamphetamine I've heard of have been impairment, not improvement. Do you have any citations?

Also, methamphetamine has a very high addiction potential. I don't know if this does - I've yet to even glance at the paper - but I would be willing to hedge money on your comparison being between apples & oranges.

Re: A drug that can make your old memories like new

#10

Post by thisisnotmyname » Fri, Mar 04, 2011, 7:40 PM UTC

Just from the abstract, it looks like they're genetically increasing the amount of this particular protein (PKMζ) in the neocortex of rats, not giving them a drug. I'll read the article and revise.

Edit: The approach here is to create a virus that carries a gene coding for the protein they want to overexpress. The virus inserts the gene into the host cell's dna, which in this case is in the rat's neocortex. They say that expression of this protein is under control of a cytomegalovirus promoter, but I'm not sure if they need to use an additional drug to induce expression.

In any case, the HN title is incorrect.