Over the past few years, pharmaceutical companies have put millions of dollars in searching for drugs that might be able to treat dementia as well as improve a person’s memory. All levels of poor memory are targeted, from missing a single word to not remembering large pieces of information.
Today, drug companies are creating a serious of pills that may potentially enhance the memory and may also help people with their work and studies. These new medications are now being aimed to treat Alzheimer’s but may be licensed as over-the-counter products in just years. One drug for memory is being developed by Astra-Zeneca alongside Targacetp and Epix Pharmaceuticals is developing another one. Pills like Procera are already on the market. The medications contain “cognitive-enhancing effects” that will be used to target people with memory loss.
These new medications are now being developed to target the “search and retrieval system” of the brain. The first drug able to boost the memory seems to be those drugs that were made for memory loss at its worst. These drugs help to remember and retrieve information by allowing brain chemicals to work efficiently.
A dog's bark is worse than its, wait, what?
A great amount of information is taken into the brain each second and the brain must decide what is important enough to remember. It is said that information from an emotional experience is stored as long-term memories. The stronger the tie is to the emotions, the easier it is to retrieve from memory.
Scientists are also creating medicines that will enhance the normal memory; something that can possibly make learning easier for everyone, regardless of age. Scientists have been able to alter genes in mice with an enhanced memory that continues until it is turned off by the removal of the drug that is controlling the gene that puts a major memory-governing enzyme into code.
It was discovered that when this added enhanced memory, mice are able to better perform on memory tests and then return to normal after the drug had been removed. This achievement with the mice provides great insight into how memory is stored in the molecular balance. Although drugs made to enhance memory are still far off, researchers do believe that this does open new understanding of the basis of molecular memory.
