Brain
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Scientists have learned to exert control over memory. Biochemists at New York University have discovered that fading memory can be restored or on the contrary, memory can be erased by injecting a certain molecule into the brain.

The wonder-molecule, protein kinase M-zeta (PKM-zeta), regulates the efficiency of bindings between nerve tissues. Our memory depends on these bindings, says the director of the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity, Pavel Balaban.

"How memory originates? Nerve cells start binding each other in a different way, and new possibilities appear at the level of network to response in a different way to the same stimuli. All this is determined by the bindings between cells, Pavel Balaban said.

Memory improves as these bindings strengthen further. However, no one could influence this process for a long time. The American scientists have suggested that the ferment PKM-zeta is the key manipulator of recall. They conducted a series of experiments on rats. The work of this ferment was activated in one group of rats using special methods and was weakened in another group. Then, the rats were given contaminated tasty water that made them ill. After the recovery, the rats from the first group refused to drink the tasty water. This means that they learned a lesson. Meanwhile, the rats, whose activity of the PKM-zeta was suppressed, drank the dangerous liquid as if nothing had happened earlier. Their bad memory was erased completely.

Scientists say that a similar process is taking place in human beings. Consequently, drugs that improve the work of the PKM-zeta ferment may help patients with memory loss or to gather a large amount of information. By lowering the efficiency of the work of the regulating ferment, the people who suffer from post-trauma syndrome can get rid of haunting memories. To this end, there is a need to learn how to act locally because the main problem in pathology is not to erase all but only those that disturb a person not letting him live normally.

The Russian scientists at the institute are also studying the PKM-zeta ferment but disagree with its absolute significance in the processes going on in the brain. They agree that this is a memory regulator, but there is a control at a higher level, probably at the gene level, which on its part, determines the brain's normal status since the ferment should be produced in the body. Scientists will have to reveal this secret yet.