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Biotech Science

Scientists Discover Way To Reverse Memory Loss 212

Posted by samzenpus from the insert-probe-and-remember dept.
electricbern writes "Scientists have accidentally discovered how to reverse memory loss by stimulating a specific part of the hypothalamus. Good news for people with Alzheimer's and those who just forgot where they left the car keys."
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Scientists Discover Way To Reverse Memory Loss More

Scientists Discover Way To Reverse Memory Loss

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  • Wait... (Score:5, Funny)

    by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:19PM (#22241058)
    I forgot what I was going to post.

    • Re:Wait... (Score:5, Funny)

      by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:24PM (#22241102) Journal

      I forgot what I was going to post.


      Relax. We can get that right back for you. Now all I have to do is make an incision right there... yeah, and could you hand me that car battery and those jumper cables?

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by snowraver1 ( 1052510 )
        Weak... How about "Honey I lost the keys, grab me my scalpel and skull drill, `couse were goin' in!"
    • -- how to eat
      -- how to dump
      -- how to wipe
      -- how to bathe
      -- how to relax
      -- how to drive
      -- how to ride a bike
      -- etc...

      What is there to remember?

      Maybe it's not mere repetition, but intensity of act of repetition (not (bad) counting sex, or hemorrhoids, and other unpleasant things...) that helps us remember?

      But, is there any proof that Alzheimer's victims forgot how to have sex? Swear, etc? (Not talking about those with stroke-like side-effects such as total motor or vocal or sensory failure...)

    • Sad but... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by crovira ( 10242 )
      the ability to form short-term memories is far more important to day to day living that the ability to retrieve stuff from long term storage.

      My mother had a series of small strokes (watch your blood pressure folks, and that's the extent of my preaching,) that left her unable to form short term memories.

      It has completely devastated the woman she was and left the shell that's left unable to live day to day because she can't keep a memory intact long enough to not repeat herself.

      Its painful and its even worse

      • Bluescreening (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MillionthMonkey ( 240664 ) on Thursday January 31, 2008 @05:19AM (#22244200)
        I have problems with memory, because I have intractable epilepsy with a cluster of seizures every few weeks. Nobody knows what causes them; it's not an aneurysm or anything like that, because MRI, PET, and CAT images all look normal. My neurologist said I was apparently born with a "wiring abnormality", which actually sounds kind of cool. So I get a chance every few weeks to experience recovery from severe brain trauma, of varying degrees, with no permanent physical injury. It severely impairs memory and recall, but after you go through it a couple hundred times you remember enough to get a pretty good perspective of what recovery from brain trauma is like. And you can pick up a couple of insights about how brains work and what you experience when your brain has to reconstruct its state from scratch after a hard reset.

        First of all, one thing I've realized about being stupid is that it's hard to recognize your own stupidity. (Which you might guess.) A seizure can trigger an IQ drop of 80-90 points and it takes a good part of a week for it to drift back up to 160 or 170 or whatever it is. I sometimes think it's over and that I have all my wits back, but then three days later I have to rewrite all the shitty code I've been writing for the past few days. It's generally well formed, looks OK, and is easy to read, but it somehow lacks direction and it turns out to do nothing useful.

        Short term memory is consolidated into long term memory through some pipeline that involves several days of processing. If it gets disrupted by an episode of brain trauma, the result is retrograde amnesia: memories formed during the previous few days are damaged and dim. Stuff learned then will usually have to be relearned. There is no hard edge to it; there are memories right up to the point of failure- but they get dimmer and dimmer up to the day of the seizure, which is just a fog of blurry memories. I can actually teach people things that just a few days later they'll have to teach back to me.

        The most terrifying times are when short term memory doesn't work at all, when things go in one ear and out the other. That always produces mind-numbing terror that never stops; you're perpetually surprised by it. I can tolerate it once in a while, since it's brief and not permanent, but if I ever get diagnosed with Alzheimers or a degenerative dementia I'll make sure there's a gun in the house. My grandmother is like this now and she is always scared whenever I see her. She doesn't recognize any of us anymore. This was a really proud woman most of her life, a little snooty even, and now she doesn't even know where the toilet is in her house.

        Occasionally a seizure can produce a fugue, where you wander around in a daze, totally incoherent. This happened to an epileptic friend of mine just last month- [nakedjen.com] she was walking around Salt Lake City in a fugue, underdressed in 7 degree weather at 3 AM when the cops found her. When this happens, it's not always obvious what's wrong. I usually just think I'm looking for something. What, I can't remember, but it doesn't occur to me to think about it. It's easy to get lost, and I've found myself in some pretty weird places. One time (back when I had a car) I got lost driving home from work in a fugue. I didn't hit anybody or run any lights, just like my code looks OK and compiles, but the longer it takes to do something, the more likely it is to get screwed up.

        • A seizure can trigger an IQ drop of 80-90 points and it takes a good part of a week for it to drift back up to 160 or 170 or whatever it is.
          Considering that around only half a percent of people are above 140, that's pretty impressive.

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by MillionthMonkey ( 240664 )
            It was actually measured at 140, but since that was a few years ago I usually throw 20-30 points on top for inflation. I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

        • Occasionally a seizure can produce a fugue, where you wander around in a daze, totally incoherent. This happened to an epileptic friend of mine just last month- she was walking around Salt Lake City in a fugue, underdressed in 7 degree weather at 3 AM when the cops found her.

          Did anyone else notice her say, "and the cops checked my house for me"?

          They didn't check it for HER. They checked it for them- to see if they could find drugs.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Intron ( 870560 )
          That's an unusual condition. Have you looked at the wearable computing projects, and do you think anything like video recording would help you get back to normal after an episode? The main problem with the stuff is that its fairly intrusive right now.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bdp ( 41335 )
      We can remember it for you wholesale!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arivanov ( 12034 )
      That's OK. Read Bulgakov's "Heart of The Dog" (Sobachie Serdce) and you will remember it. Surreal as it is, it was written more than 70 years ago.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by JrOldPhart ( 1063610 )
      I've got good news and bad news.

      The bad news: You have Alzheimer's.

      The good: You can go home and forget about it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Daetrin ( 576516 )
      You were going to post that perhaps this will be good news for Terry Pratchett fans! [slashdot.org] We're getting a little closer to the world of Rainbows End every day :)

  • I'll Drink to That (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:21PM (#22241084) Homepage Journal
    I wonder whether there's a specific herb that's bad for that part of the brain, either eaten, drunk or smoked. Could be a good way to get through life's many best-forgotten moments.

    Or, for those living the dream, maybe there's some herb that's good for that part of the brain.

    I know I'd prefer that to going under the knife or taking a pill with some synthetic stuff no one ever tried before.
    • Personally, I'd prefer a small electrode or set of electrodes attached to a portion of my brain and a switch to turn it on or off. Oh, and a small LED, too, so I can literally "have a lightbulb go off in my head." But seriously, something portable and fast acting is what I'd like. No sitting around waiting for some herbs or something to work, just a quick zap to the head with the memory-prod and back to whatever I needed it for.
    • Not everything comes in herbs, you silly man. (But I bet we could engineer one!) Also, if this article is showing up, hasn't it been tested already? At least to an extent? And more after the FDA (hopefully) goes through it? (Maybe?)
      • Herbs have been tested (and engineered) for thousands of years. You go ahead and use the FDA "testing". I'll watch to see how well you fare.

  • Been there, done that (Score:5, Funny)

    by philspear ( 1142299 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:25PM (#22241116)
    Everytime I shock myself I remember fresh why I don't like shocking myself.
  • Maybe I'll remember what I was going to say.
    • Well if someone doctor was waving a local anesthetic at me and threatening to stick metal rods with an electric current through my brain, I'd be trying damn hard to remember whatever it is they wanted!

      Of course now when you try and claim you've forgotten your PGP password and really can't help the *IAA / FBI / NSA / GCHQ / Etc the response you'll get is "well maybe we can help you...". Next thing you know you're on an operating table and some army doctor is looking down at you with a big smile saying, "Don

  • Dammit.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:26PM (#22241130)
    I guess from now on I'll have to perform the 8 level DoD 5220.69M brain wipe instead of the plain old erase procedure :(

    • Or just don't load Vista (Score:5, Funny)

      by EmbeddedJanitor ( 597831 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:32PM (#22241188)
      I find I lose more than half my memory when I load Vista.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by syousef ( 465911 )
        I find I lose more than half my memory when I load Vista.

        Yesterday I learnt that if rely on Vista Backup and Restore you also end up side-effects with "missing time" and deja0-vu as you then have to play the reinstall game. (Fun for all the family)

    • Do Want (Score:3, Funny)

      by Valdrax ( 32670 )

      I guess from now on I'll have to perform the 8 level DoD 5220.69M brain wipe instead of the plain old erase procedure :(
      Can I get some more info on that?
      You see, I've had this Sheryl Crow song stuck in my head for a week now...
      • I guess from now on I'll have to perform the 8 level DoD 5220.69M brain wipe instead of the plain old erase procedure :(
        Can I get some more info on that? You see, I've had this Sheryl Crow song stuck in my head for a week now..

        Always look on the bright side of life ...
        de doo, de doo de doo de doo

        There, took care of that.

  • If you forget where you put the car keys once in a while, that's not a problem. If however, you forget what they are for, then you have a problem.

  • Can we force these electrodes into the heads ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:31PM (#22241184) Journal
    ... of the politicians who keep saying "I don't recall", "I don't remember" in the Senate investigations?

    ..oh! wait.

    If you are going to insert electrodes into politicians, why waste it on their head? There are better choices available.

  • Accidentally discovered? (Score:4, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:39PM (#22241266)
    What? Did they forget what they were looking for in the first place?

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:39PM (#22241268)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • True enough, but I think many Alzheimer's patients and their families would be willing to risk it. Think of this as kind of a pace-maker for the brain.

      Other than physical ailments resulting in regular/constant excruciating pain, I can't think of a worse condition to have than one that takes away even your most fundamental cognitive abilities and memories.

      I would add the 'waitandsee' tag to this though. A wonderful development, but don't get hopes up too soon.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Temujin_12 ( 832986 )
          Hi again!

          I totally agree with your point that treating the human brain can have many unintended consequences. IANABS (I am not a brain surgeon), but having studied back propagation neural networks as an undergrad taught me that the human brain is MUCH MUCH more complex than we would like it to be. The perceptron model (and variations on it) are an oversimplification of the workings on the brain. Even if you modeled all of the synapses in the brain, you still have to deal with the fact that the brain

        • That's just one possible scenario. Another is that the patient may recover just enough cognitive ability to be able to recognize what a miserable state they're in. Wonderful for the family, Mom can now recognize them again. Horrible for Mom - instead of happily staring at the TV or eating pudding, she now knows that she soils herself several times a day and is stuck in a crappy place.

          Oh, like my life. I don't recall it but my sister told me when I came out of the coma I was in I screamed at everyone to

    • head injuries (Score:4, Interesting)

      by falconwolf ( 725481 ) <falconsoaring_2000 AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @10:01PM (#22241866)

      Speaking as someone with crap memory as a result of a head injury, I wouldn't risk it.

      As someone also with crappy memory due to a head injury, I survived a Traumatic Brain Injury [headinjury.com] or TBI [wikipedia.org], I'd be willing to take part in a study to investigate whether something like this would help me.

      fortunately most of the effects in my case were temporary, but I still have problems.

      Unfortunately unless there's a breakthrough more than likely in my case it's permanent.

      When tinkering with the brain, unintended consequences can be severe, and nobody seems to really give a crap about those unintended consequences except for the person who has to deal with them.

      I look at it the oppose to you, because of people like you people like me are being prevented from seeing possible breakthroughs in neurology, oh and cancer treatment.

      Leave well enough alone is usually the best motto when it comes to the noggin, unless your life and disability is too intolerable so you're willing to take any chance.

      Not only is my life so intolerable I'd be willing to take a change, but I'd leap at such a chance. If I weren't so chickenshit I'd have ended my suffering years ago.

      Falcon
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • What do you mean because of people like me? I'm not AGAINST it

          What you say, "Leave well enough alone is usually the best motto when it comes to the noggin, unless your life and disability is too intolerable so you're willing to take any chance" leaves me to believe you are against it, trying to repair injured brains.

          Falcon
          • To a large extent, I agree with the above poster's concerns. Obviously, the medical profession needs to research repairing damaged brains because for SOME people, their condition IS intolerable. But such tinkering shouldn't be done lightly.
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Not only is my life so intolerable I'd be willing to take a change, but I'd leap at such a chance. If I weren't so chickenshit I'd have ended my suffering years ago.



        Falcon
        I find your 'chickenshitedness' admirable. Good luck to you.

        • I find your 'chickenshitedness' admirable. Good luck to you.

          Being afraid isn't all of it but it's still a big factor. Prior to the accident that caused my injury a belief in reincarnation was part part of my spiritual beliefs. While those beliefs were among the things I lost, irrationally I keep thinking that if it is true and I ended my life I would have to come back and go through it all over again. That very thought really scares me.

          Another thing that worked to stop me, as some of the therapists

    • Always err on the side of caution yes but if it has a decent chance of improving your life then go for it.

      'decent' varies on the person and the disability.

      Outright forbidding any brain tinkering is stupid as the benefits can be incredible.
      You just need to understand the risk fully before having the operation.
  • So, this is reminding me a lot of "Terminal Man" which was written back in the 80s. Basically, they put electrodes into a guy's head to stop him from having psychotic episodes, or maybe just violent epilepsy (it was a long time ago). Some of the electrodes brought back memories. Was Crichton just writing that based on theories in the field that hadn't been tested, or has this been around for a while?

    Anyway, in the end, the shocks made the guy become murderous permanently, and he killed a bunch of people,

    • Re:Michael Crichton's "terminal man" (Score:4, Informative)

      by mmell ( 832646 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:44PM (#22241316)
      Mr. Crichton's work was based on sound, confirmed science, dating back to the '40's and earlier - even by the turn of the century, medical science was beginning to understand that direct, external stimuli to the brain resulted in perceptual activities - memories, smells, emotions, etc. - but again, I don't think there was a great deal of truly scientific work in the field until the '40's and '50's.

      And the shocks didn't make him murderous - the shocks conditioned his brain to trigger a psychomotor epileptic seizure (to experience the pleasure of a shock) - eventually, the conditioning caused seizures which overrode the neural pacemaker's ability to moderate his brain's electrical activity.

    • If you're going to spoil a book, do it properly. The shocks didn't directly make him murderous. In fact, they did exactly what they were supposed to: stop his psychotic episodes. What caused him to become murderous was that he became addicted to the shocks, and thus learned autonomically to self-induce the psychotic state. Eventually, his brain became so 'good' at maintaining that state that the shocks weren't able to repress it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      yes, also we should watch out for dinosaurs, mysterious space virus, and be prepared to repell tone of scientific fact with hand waving.

      He takes an interesting idea based on some scientific premise, and takes it to a nice fictional story level. That is all.

  • Good news for (Score:4, Funny)

    by spazoid12 ( 525450 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:42PM (#22241296)
    "Good news for people with Alzheimer's and those that just forgot where he left his car's key."

    Also good news for those who done forgot them gramma'h rules from the schoolin' days.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ColaMan ( 37550 )
      Are you sure about that?

      "Alzheimer's" is the generally correct usage, given that it's a common enough malady to be able to leave out its companion word "disease" - the part which requires the posessive apostrophe to be used. That is, it's a disease first noticed as a separate malady by a Dr. Alzheimer and thus its "his" disease.

      Ditto for "car's key" - although an odd phrase to my ears, it is grammatically correct. A car typically only requires one key, so the phrase "my car's key" works, just like "my cat's

  • Me lose brain? Uh-oh (Score:3, Insightful)

    by weighn ( 578357 ) <weighn.gmail@com> on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:51PM (#22241372) Homepage
    while not wanting to bring the mood down, innit funny how much R&D goes into "curing" Western maladies like erectile dysfunction and pickled brain cells while millions die each year from neglected diseases [wikipedia.org] ... just my whine for the day folks. Carry on.
    • 3rd world diseases aside (which I agree is a horrible situation), I think you are making the incorrect assumption that quantity of life is far more important than quality of life. If anything, I think we are spending too much time extending the length of life and not enough worrying about the effects it will have down the road. Personally, I would rather die at 50 when I'm still having a good time than live to 150 and spend the last 50 years of my life stuck in a wheelchair wearing diapers.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by TrekkieGod ( 627867 )

      while not wanting to bring the mood down, innit funny how much R&D goes into "curing" Western maladies like erectile dysfunction and pickled brain cells while millions die each year from neglected diseases

      What's wrong with that? The third world diseases you linked to are an economic problem, and no R&D is required to solve them. That's why those diseases are virtually non-existent in wealthy nations.

      You might argue that we need to shift resources in order to help those people, but you can't argue that the direction of R&D research needs to shift. That wouldn't help, they'd still need the funds to deploy whatever cure they come up with.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by weighn ( 578357 )

        ... you can't argue that the direction of R&D research needs to shift. That wouldn't help, they'd still need the funds to deploy whatever cure they come up with.

        I'm not so sure - look at where the big R&D money is being poured (my Google foo is still on vacation, so I may or may not find some refs before finishing typing this).

        Anti-aging in its myriad forms (wrinkles, limp dicks, cellulose - although these are entirely normal phenomena re-packaged as "syndromes" in need of a cure); anti-obesity (new synthetic fats that will likely cause bowel cancer in exchange for slimmer consumers); etc; etc.

        I'm not anti-science, just bewildered at the trends and drivers

        • Re:Me lose brain? Uh-oh (Score:5, Insightful)

          by TrekkieGod ( 627867 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @11:55PM (#22242608) Homepage Journal

          I'm not anti-science, just bewildered at the trends and drivers for growth (even on campus) that come from the pursuit for the research dollar.

          I think you misunderstood my argument. I didn't think you were anti-science. Your comment led me to believe you're a well-meaning guy who is concerned about the welfare of people who are less fortunate than you. I think you set your sights on the wrong problem though.

          The reason so much R&D money is being spent in things like anti-aging and anti-obesity is because these are unsolved problems. The diseases listed in your wikipedia link are solved problems. If the economy in the third world countries catch up, they disappear. Dengue Fever, for example, is transmitted by mosquitoes. If you have the resources to invest in mosquito control, the problem disappears (such as the mosquito eradication program in the united states back in the 1960's, which is why we don't have a dengue problem here--the antiviral drug isn't necessary to end the disease). Most of those other diseases, such as parasites, also go away once people start living in more sanitary conditions. If you want examples of a disease that isn't as vain as "limp dicks" that gets plenty of R&D, just look at cancer. That problem can't be solved with by simply improving the economy, so there's a lot of R&D investment.

          So the question is, why do those diseases still exist? Lack of resources. And if the R&D resources get shifted to solve those problems, the resources to pay for the newly found medicine will still be non-existent, and the "solution" won't get deployed. Case in point, AIDS medication. People with AIDS in the US can lead relatively normal lives with the available medication (ok, they still have their share of problems, but their life expectancy is significantly higher than it would be without the medication). In Africa, they can't afford it, because the patents make those medicines way too expensive to buy from the first-world pharmaceutical companies, and they can't produce it cheaply in those countries without paying the royalties to those same pharm companies. Your study, coming from the "Commission on Intellectual Property Rights" was a biased study designed to fight this particular criticism in favor of maximizing the amount of cash the pharmaceuticals get to squeeze out of their patents. The obvious flaw is that the same countries that DO respect patents, are those that can't afford the already existing drugs.

          However, even those AIDS drugs aren't the solution to the problem. Again, that's another disease that mostly goes away with an improved economy and education. If you understand how AIDS is transmitted, you can completely avoid it (assuming the hospitals in your country check their donated blood and organs for diseases, as well as having the resources to keep their surgical instruments sterilized). That's why the united states has a significantly lower incidence of the disease even though people with it can live longer and therefore would be able to transmit it to more people over a longer period of time. Since the vast majority of people here understand how the disease is transmitted, and has access to condoms, the problem doesn't spread out of control.

    • while not wanting to bring the mood down, innit funny how much R&D goes into "curing" Western maladies like erectile dysfunction ....
      When I read that, I had this image in my head of a balding man with thick glasses saying "Hmm.. you know, if we increase blood flow, we can improve erectile dysfunction. But... poop, I really should start working on African Sleeping Sickness, first."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by weighn ( 578357 )

        When I read that, I had this image in my head of a balding man with thick glasses saying "Hmm.. you know, if we increase blood flow, we can improve erectile dysfunction. But... poop, I really should start working on African Sleeping Sickness, first."

        when I read that, I couldn't figure if you have some dated stereotypical image of scientists or if you think that its normal/natural for balding, old, rich, white crackers to get fresh with real women .... ?

      • Viagra was actually originally developed to help combat high blood pressure [wikipedia.org], and they ended up discovering it wasn't really good at that, but it gave a lot of the test subjects boners. So, they gave it to the marketing department and you've got what we've got today. It wasn't that they were TRYING to fix erectile dysfunction... they were trying to fix something that was actually dangerous, and happened to stumble upon a way to make some people's lives better. Is that such a horrible thing? (if you ignor

  • Original research abstract (Score:5, Informative)

    by FleaPlus ( 6935 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:52PM (#22241382) Journal
    FYI, here's the original abstract for the research the news article is based on:

    http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/117902419/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 [wiley.com]

    Memory enhancement induced by hypothalamic/fornix deep brain stimulation

    Clement Hamani, MD, PhD 1, Mary Pat McAndrews, PhD 2, Melanie Cohn, PhD 2, Michael Oh, MD 1, Dominik Zumsteg, MD 3, Colin M. Shapiro, MD, PhD, FRCPC 4, Richard A. Wennberg, MD, FRCPC 3, Andres M. Lozano, MD, PhD, FRCSC

    Bilateral hypothalamic deep brain stimulation was performed to treat a patient with morbid obesity. We observed, quite unexpectedly, that stimulation evoked detailed autobiographical memories. Associative memory tasks conducted in a double-blinded on versus off manner demonstrated that stimulation increased recollection but not familiarity-based recognition, indicating a functional engagement of the hippocampus. Electroencephalographic source localization showed that hypothalamic deep brain stimulation drove activity in mesial temporal lobe structures. This shows that hypothalamic stimulation in this patient modulates limbic activity and improves certain memory functions. Ann Neurol 2008;63:119-123
    Received: 5 July 2007; Revised: 31 August 2007; Accepted: 4 October 2007

  • Personally, I welcome our .... (Score:3, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @08:55PM (#22241400)
    ... who did you say it was again?
  • "This is the first time anyone has had electrodes planted in the brain which have been shown to improve memory."

    Well, consequently it's first time anyone tried to plant electrodes in the brain to treat obesity either. Yeah, I guess, you can call that an "accident"!

    "I went to a fat camp, and all i got was an electrode in my brain and this lousy T-shirt."
  • So, I guess this will be the end of dupes on /. I feel like I'm losing one of the features that makes slashdot so special...
  • Carkeys forget YOU!

  • SWEET!! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CODiNE ( 27417 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2008 @11:45PM (#22242542) Homepage
    Now you'll have to pee in a cup before SAT exams and Jeopardy tournaments. Wonder if kids fry their brains on a marathon caffeine study binge followed up with a hit of this before their exams.

    Even neater is the possibility of temporarily removing memories and then bringing them back later, something like spy work or undercover jobs. Give someone valuable information, wipe it... get them to negotiate with someone and agree to remember it after payment is sent. Then they give him a shot of the stuff... whooops, been screwed, he never know it at all! Dead spy... happy rich boss. Lotta potential here.

  • I'm going to Mars (Score:4, Funny)

    by gulledondervan ( 213010 ) on Thursday January 31, 2008 @03:18AM (#22243656)
    These folks just sold me a fantastic Mars vacation package. I'm going to be a spy and meet a sleazy brunette.

    Sincerely,

    Douglas Quaid

    P.S. Do you know where I can find Kuato?
  • Purple Ninja [truckbearingkibble.com] will have a better defense now!
  • Great news!

    Now quick, before I forget it, where do I sign up?

  • What are keys? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mrsalty ( 104200 )
    My wife used to work with alzheimer patients and described it like this:
    Alzheimer's is not forgetting where your keys are, that is being ascent minded.
    Alzheimer's is forgetting what you keys are and what they do.
  • Sounds great. Drop a tiny wire into my brain, and the moment I forget something I just push a button to stimulate my brain to remember.

    Now where did I put that button?

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