• Home
  • Science
  • Science News
  • MIT Researchers Believe Targeting Treatments to This Brain Circuit May Reverse Memory Decline

MIT Researchers Believe Targeting Treatments to This Brain Circuit May Reverse Memory Decline

An advantage of targeting the thalamus for treatments is that it limits possible disturbances to other parts of the brain.

MIT Researchers Believe Targeting Treatments to This Brain Circuit May Reverse Memory Decline

Photo Credit: Pixabay / The Digital Artist

The thalamus is an egg-shaped structure in the middle of the brain

Highlights
  • The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
  • Thalamus relay incoming sensory information from body to brain
  • Thalamus does not relay information related to smell
Advertisement

As we age, the retention power of our memory often degrades. This makes performing everyday tasks difficult. It gets very difficult to remember things. For instance, elderly people could forget by afternoon what they ate for breakfast. They may even find it difficult to recall a conversation they had with someone. One key brain region linked to this type of memory is the anterior thalamus, which is primarily involved in the recollection of our surroundings and how to navigate them. The thalamus is an egg-shaped structure in the middle of the brain whose primary function is to relay incoming sensory information — such as hearing, taste, sight, and touch — from the body to the brain. However, it does not relay information related to smell.

In a recent study on mice, researchers have identified a circuit in the anterior thalamus that is key to remembering how to navigate a maze. They found that this circuit is usually impaired in older mice. But if this circuit's activity is enhanced, it greatly improves the ability of the mice to run the maze correctly.

The researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) focussed on this region of the brain in their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and say this could be an ideal target for treatments to reverse memory loss in elderly people.

They say if a non-invasive or minimally invasive technology is developed to target treatments in this part of the human brain, it could offer a way to help prevent age-related memory loss.

Guoping Feng, senior author of the study, said that instead of influencing the prefrontal cortex, which has many distinct roles, they want to uncover more specific and druggable targets in this area by studying how the thalamus affects the cortical output.

An advantage of targeting the thalamus for treatments is that it limits possible disturbances to other parts of the brain.

We can trigger anxiety-related behaviour by directly activating neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, but this will not happen with AV (anteroventral) activation, said Ying Zhang, lead author of the study.


Should you pick Vivo over Galaxy S22 and OnePlus 10 Pro? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Netflix Series Adaptation Reportedly in the Works
Andor, Star Wars Prequel Series, to Premiere on Disney+ Hotstar in August, Teaser Trailer Released
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »