Posted on 08/19/2007 5:01:26 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
Gary Lynch has spent decades trying to understand how the brain processes new information so that we can recall it later.
The first time I spoke with the neuroscientist Gary Lynch, the conversation went something like this:
Me: I'm interested in spending time in a laboratory like yours, where the principal focus is the study of memory. I'd like to explain how memory functions and fails, and why, and use the work in the lab as a means to illustrate how we know what we know.
Lynch: You'd be welcome to come here. This would actually be a propitious time to be in the lab.
Me: Why's that?
Lynch: Because we're about to nail this mother to the door.
Lynch is a neuroscientist at UC Irvine, where he has spent 37 years trying to uncover the biochemical mechanisms of memory.
He has, for almost the length of his career, been trying to answer essentially a single pair of questions: What happens in the brain when a human being encounters a new experience so that he or she can recall it at will tonight, tomorrow, in 2025? And what goes wrong when we can't remember?
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
This guy had better watch out for the Clinton Protection Service—who’d rather that failed memories a) stay that way, and b) be beyond contradiction.
I’ve been following Gary Lynch for over 15 years and thank you for posting the story.
The work he’s done in AMPAKINES and improving memory is not yet known by many yet but his time is coming. The first real hit came at Wake Forest with the work of Dr. Deadwyler on memories and monkeys. Given CX-717 improvements both in a sleep deprived state and also in a rested state. The results are almost science fiction.
BUT then came the FDA with a finding right after the first real human results in a phase II test that the drug was toxic. That’s been proven wrong but it’s taken over a year to do that. Smooth sailing now? Hardly, but the future could be incredible.
Huntington’s disease, maybe Parkinson’s, surely MCI are targets that Gary has in his sights.
Loved the article, thanks for posting a link to it!
Bill
Also it interests me not only that we can remember so much, but also the richness and quality of human memory. When we remember a song, we can replay it with every complex tone on our mental MP3 player. When we remember tastes, smells, it's like a simulator. When we remember a special day or event, there is just so much complex detail recorded besides the actual event.
BTW animals seem to have remarkable memory skills. For example, my dog remembers each and every place he ever caught a mouse or surprised a squirrel or rabbit. Long after the smells are gone, he will check those places.
I’m guessing there is going to be a second part to this article because there doesn’t seem to be much of a wrapup at the end. Regarding Gary Lynch, I find it inspiring to hear about people who have devoted their entire lives to achieve an important breakthrough. Stories like that bring home how amazing people are.
Yes....I believe you are correct.....I never feed my dog at the table....but my husband does, so she will hang out on his side of the table.....but, tonight, I couldn’t figure out why she was hanging out on my side of the table.....I think it’s because we had chicken, and I have recently begun giving her a piece of skin or fat or meat at our meal’s conclusion....I do believe she remembered that....and they say dogs have short memories....NOT.
You might want to read Dr. Gary Small’s work, he’s at UCLA and has published books on memory. My impression is: Use it or loose it. Musical memory is good, really good, but the important thing is to keep your mind ACTIVE. And then diet and antioxidants.
I’m sure there’s plenty on the web to get you going, don’t just cross your fingers. And good luck with your parents. Dr. Lynch’s work in AMPAKINES may eventually help them but the FDA road just takes time AND big $$ to get something approved for MCI and hopefully eventually ALZ.
I have a youtube piece that talks of AMGEN’s work with GDNF and the improvements they were getting with Parkinson’s disease patients at the Univ. of KY. Really incredible. The difference with Lynch’s work and AMGEN’s GDNF is Lynch is trying to get the brain to upregulate BDNF which will hopefully make the brain “younger” again and allow these kind of improvements in neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease. The brain produces less BDNF as you get older, making more may be like injecting GDNF as they did on the youtube clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5vm4ZoCmUA
Here is the second part of the series:
Today: Testing the hypothesis. Things in Lynch’s lab go haywire.
Tuesday: The lab begins an
unparalleled run of success.
Wednesday: The culmination.
Can an actual memory inside the brain be seen?
PART 2:
I appreciate the ping. Can’t wait for tomorrow. Thanks.
Thanks for the post
Free Republic has a team of about 200 regular folders that contribute computer time to help solve diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.
This is the child of the Human Genome Project from the 90’s and is focused on computer modeling of proteins, running simulations to better understand how our cells create life with every breath. The work has direct application to the understanding of why these proteins fold wrong.
Please join us in folding, and ping any of the folks on the thread if you have questions. Truly a worthy cause.
The current thread is here, and I hope to have a new thread up this weekend:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1869383/posts
< /vanity>
I always appreciate the science articles you post so I thought I should return the favor on these articles.
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