Older news items (pre-2010) brought over from the old website
Hypnosis study sheds insight on amnesia
An intriguing study investigating brain activity of hypnotically induced forgetting may shed light on amnesia. Researchers showed volunteers a documentary depicting a day in the life of a young woman, followed a week later with a brain scan while they were put into a hypnotic state. They were given a posthypnotic suggestion to forget the movie, and a reversibility cue that would restore the memory. When their recall of the movie was later tested, those susceptible to posthypnotic amnesia showed reduced recall. Brain scans revealed different brain activity patterns between those susceptible and those who were not. For the susceptible, activity in some brain regions was suppressed during memory suppression, while activity in other regions increased. But when the posthypnotic suggestion was reversed, the susceptible group showed recovery of activity in suppressed regions. The findings suggest that suppression was exerted at early stages of the retrieval process, specifically, an executive pre-retrieval monitoring process that produces an early decision on whether to proceed or not on retrieval. The researchers suggest that some forms of amnesia may be a consequence of this ‘preretrieval memory abort’ mechanism.
Mendelsohn, A., Chalamish, Y., Solomonovich, A. & Dudai, Y. 2008. Mesmerizing Memories: Brain Substrates of Episodic Memory Suppression in Posthypnotic Amnesia. Neuron, 57, 159-170.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/cp-hsr010408.php
Statins associated with rare cases of temporary amnesia
Two recent studies have documented cases of amnesia and other nervous-system side effects after taking statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs being prescribed to millions of people at risk of heart disease. It is emphasized that this is a rare problem, but given the vast numbers of people taking statins, it might still add up to a significant number of problems.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-12/ns-ymw120303.php