Neuroscience research may help patients recover from brain injury - http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...
Oct 10, 2010
from
RAPatton,
Demetrios the Traveller,
Jenny,
JB,
sofarsoShawn,
Wulffy,
Halil,
Amira,
ebru,
bcultral,
Bren,
and
futureseek
liked this
"ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2010) — New neuroscience research by life scientists from UCLA and Australia may potentially help people who have lost their ability to remember due to brain injury or disease."
- Lit
"When a memory is first formed, a small protein involved in synaptic transmission -- the NMDA receptor -- is indispensable to the process, said study co-author Bryce Vissel, a group leader of the neuroscience research program at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Activation of the NMDA receptor allows calcium to enter a neuron, and calcium permeability enables a chain of molecular reactions that help encode experience and consolidate memory, Fanselow and Vissel said.
Learning theorists have assumed that learning cannot occur without NMDA receptors. But the new findings show that NMDA receptors are not essential in "second-learning," when the rules of "first-learning" are applied to new yet similar scenarios. Instead, another class of receptors known as AMPA receptors, also calcium permeable, appears to take up the task."
- Lit