Brain Freeze

I'll admit that I have been scattered a bit as of late. Not paying attention to traffic lights, missing bits of conversation.... Hopefully it is a sign of distraction and not the early onset of Ahlzeimers!

Here is a posting on the scientific side from a recent read in the Dispatch Times. If can remember back to High School Biology, you will recall the idea of long & short term memory, neurons, and synapses. Theory has always been that amnesia or other losses were a permanent breakdown in the way the human brain communicates. But new findings (no sources noted?) seem to indicate that the storage in the brain is intact. Instead, it is nerve damage that prevents the signals from being interpreted or accessed. There are new methods being explored called optogenetics - and from what I gather it sounds like a deep tissue massage of the brain with ultrasound that joggles those nerve synapses and can slowly reignite the the pathways to access the memories.

It almost sounds similar to the plotline of the current Pixar feature Inside Out which battles teen depression. Good news for those of us aging and in danger of losing our minds.

Dispatch Times - Lost Memories