Amnesia studies that have been performed and are currently underway are shedding new light on how the brain forms memory.
The more we look into how memory is formed and lost, the more we'll be able to effectively treat things like amnesia.
Amnesia research has had a difficult road, but starting with a particular surgery in the sixties the door began to open for researchers.
What happened in the sixties is that a now famous surgery took place where a man who suffered from epilepsy had a radical surgery performed to eliminate his seizures.
The man's medial temporal lobes on both halves of his brain were detached.
This ended the seizures, but left the man unable to form any further long term memories from the point of the surgery forward.
The man was effectively left in the sixties for the rest of his life.
This opened the way for additional amnesia studies as it helped researches understand a little more regarding what parts of the brain participate in memory formation and storage.
It was previously thought that all forms of memory were stored in the same place, but this showed that was not the case.
The man retained long term memories from the past before the surgery and could continue to learn certain skills going forward as those seemed to be stored in a different part of the brain.
However, the processes for moving short term memory into long term storage seemed to be impacted by the removal of that section of the brain.
This plus additional amnesia research caused scientists to rethink how the brain created and stored various kinds of memory.
More recent amnesia research is helping science discover what brain chemicals and proteins are involved in memory formation.
Some studies on animals uncovered a particular protein that was involved in memory.
When altering levels of this protein they were able to demonstrate an impact on memory storage.
This opens up the possibility of treatments focused on the chemicals and proteins involved in the memory process possibly through the use of natural supplements that support production of those chemicals and proteins.
Other amnesia studies have uncovered the some of the memory loss seen in long term alcoholics is due to a lack of a particular B complex vitamin.
This showed that certain nutrients are used by the brain in the processes of memory formation, storage and retrieval.
Increasing the vitamin in the diet of those suffering from alcoholism seemed to help improve memory function.
Amnesia studies are also being done using imaging equipment.
The idea is to perform various tests and map the parts of the brain active during the creation and retrieval of memory.
The studies usually are done both on a group of normal adults as a control and on patients suffering amnesia or other forms of memory loss.
The brain is imaged and the active areas mapped during the testing.
The results are compared to see if certain areas of the brain active in normal people is absent in those with memory loss.
There is much more we still have to learn about our brains and the way our memory works.
Amnesia studies are a good way to compare and contrast with healthy brain tests to see how the brain functions.
Scientists are making some advances in this area though and with that comes the hope that more effective treatment for memory loss is around the corner.