14. "Experimental Drug Targets Alzheimer's"

Summary: In this really short article, the author talks about how mice were injected with a drug named AF267B and through this, their emotional memory was paralyzed just as those with Alzheimer's disease. The opposing drug titled NGX267 reduces beta-amyloid plaques and affects the hippocampus for spatial learning is now being tested in humans.

Key Facts:
"An Alzheimer's affected brain area that's associated with emotional memory didn't benefit from the drug."

S., N. "Experimental Drug Targets Alzheimer's." JSTOR. Society for Science & the
Public, 8 Apr. 2006. Web. 31 Jan. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4019180>.

3. "Memory Implants"

Summary: Author John Cohen talks about how Theodore Berger is in the process of developing a technology that will be able to trigger people's memories into remembering the long-term. By inserting this piece into the brain, it works with the neutrons in order to process information to generate memories. A highly scientific article, Cohen goes in depth with Berger's experiments. For example, they used a monkey to perform a specific task, drugged the monkey with cocaine (eliminating that memory and the same part of his brain), and then used the technology to revive his memory of the past task just taught. This is still highly a work in progress and Berger is collaborating with associates at USC.

Key Facts:
"A day in the not too distant future when a patient with severe memory loss can get help from an electronic implant."
"Berger has designed silicon chips to mimic the signal processing that those neurons do when they’re functioning properly—the work that allows us to recall experiences and knowledge for more than a minute."
"We’re not putting individual memories back into the brain," he says. "We’re putting in the capacity to generate memories."
"Cochlear implants now help more than 200,000 deaf people hear by converting sound into electrical signals and sending them to the auditory nerve."
"Berger has developed mathematical theorems that describe how electrical signals move through the neurons of the hippocampus to form a long-term memory, and he has proved that his equations match reality."

Cohen, Jon. "Memory Implants." Technology Review. 23 Apr. 2013. Web. 31 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/513681/memory-implants>.