Can Memory Loss Be Prevented?

At the age of 78, Bob Branham, a retired computer software developer in Dallas, Tex., took up quilting. It wasn’t his idea, actually. He’d never dreamed of piecing together his own Amish diamond coverlet or rummaging around Jo-Ann Fabrics in search of calico prints. But then he enrolled in a trial sponsored by the National Institute on Aging to assess whether learning a new skill can help preserve cognitive function in old age. By random assignment, he landed in the quilting group.

When it comes to mental agility, we’re more likely to think of crosswords than cross-stitch. But neuroscientists suspect that learning a challenging new skill — a new language, a new musical instrument — may be even more effective than mental games at keeping the brain sharp. And quilting is more complicated than it may seem.

“It’s a very abstract task,” said Dr. Denise Park, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas, who is leading the trial. “You have to picture what the pattern will look like, match fabrics, manipulate geometric forms, mentally rotate objects.”

In Mr. Branham’s case, he also had to learn to use a sewing machine. And while it’s too early to tell if quilting is sharpening his mind, he quickly found that he loved his new pastime. He spends as much as 40 hours a week piecing and stitching, both at home and at the social center that Dr. Park set up for the trial.

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Stress-Related Disorders Affect Brain's Processing of Memory

Researchers using functional MRI (fMRI) have determined that the circuitry in the area of the brain responsible for suppressing memory is dysfunctional in patients suffering from stress-related psychiatric disorders. Results of the study will be presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"For patients with major depression and other stress-related disorders, traumatic memories are a source of anxiety," said Nivedita Agarwal, M.D., radiology resident at the University of Udine in Italy, where the study is being conducted, and research fellow at the Brain Imaging Center of McLean Hospital, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Because traumatic memories are not adequately suppressed by the brain, they continue to interfere with the patient's life."

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Common Medications May Harm Memory in Older People - Those on anticholinergic drugs had sharper declines in thinking skills, study finds

Common medications known as anticholinergic drugs -- used to treat ulcers, stomach cramps, motion sickness, Parkinson's disease and urinary incontinence -- may cause older people to lose their thinking skills more quickly than seniors who don't take the medicines, new research suggests.

"What we found is being on these drugs does worsen your cognitive performance," said Dr. Jack Tsao, an associate professor of neurology at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md., who led the study of the effect of the medications on older adults who were, on average, 75. "In the course of a few years, there is a small slippage. It's a minor effect."

Medications for bladder problems and Parkinson's appear to have the worst effect on memory, he said.

Anticholinergic drugs are a class of medicines that work by blocking the binding of a brain chemical called acetylcholine to its receptor in nerve cells.

"You need acetylcholine for [good] memory," Tsao explained. Drugs used to treat Alzheimer's inhibit the enzyme which breaks down acetylcholine, he said, allowing more of it to be used by the brain.

Tsao was expected to present his research Thursday at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in Chicago.

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