Each different in the process of consolidation

So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

Helen Keller

Memory has been on the continuous stages of intelligent evolution and optimism for some time. How we form new memories and retrieve old ones are still being researched today. One study that was conducted in 2014 showed the effects of caffeine and memory. The researchers in the study wanted to answer the question: Does caffeine enhance long-term memory in humans?

Interesting enough, two semesters ago I took a cognitive neuroscience class and wrote a 15 page paper on the different parts of the brain. I also chose an over-all theme: caffeine (specifically research from coffee).

This new research answered my informative conclusion since there were a number of studies suggesting that over-all memory is affected by caffeine, but there were plenty of studies that showed an over-abundance of coffee during the day can alter the way you think and the way you form new memories and retrieve old ones.

In the conclusion of the study, caffeine enhance long-term memory consolidation. Consolidation as we know in our readings as the process that transforms new memories from a fragile state, in which they can be disrupted, to a more permanent state, in which they are resistant to disruption (Goldstein, 2011). The 2014 caffeine study led by Daniel Borota and associates could tell this information by the inverted u-shape dose responsive curve in the performance before and after caffeine consumption. It is important to note that the caffeine was in correlation to the consolidation process only, not retrieval.

In a second study conducted on the connectivity of the Perirhinal-Hippocampal regions with Kaia L. Vilberg, connectivity increases when reactivation – a process during which the hippocampus replays the neural activity associated with a memory – is taking place with object-based memories and that memories become more distributed across brain regions (Goldstein, 2011). This is important as we know memory formation, including long term memory, does not just occur in one part of the brain, but different parts of the brain, in a somewhat harmonious, organized and unprecedented way.

Mahalo.

1. Daniel Borota, Elizabeth Murray, Gizem Keceli, Allen Chang, Joseph M Watabe, Maria Ly, John P Toscano & Michael A Yassa. January, 2014. Post-study caffeine administration enhances memory consolidation in humans. Retrieved from: http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v17/n2/full/nn.3623.html

2. Goldstein, Bruce. 2011. Cognitive Psychology. Cengage Learning.

3. Kaia L. Vilberg & Lila Davachi. August, 2013. Perirhinal-Hippocampal Connectivity during Reactivation Is a Marker for Object-Based Memory Consolidation. Retrieved from: http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273%2813%2900613-2