Scientists find clue to age-related memory loss - KATV -
Breaking News, Weather and Razorback Sports  Scientists find
clue to age-related memory loss  Posted: Updated:  AP Medical
Writer   Wednesday's report offers evidence that age-related
memory loss really is a distinct condition from pre-Alzheimer's
- and offers a hint that what we now consider the normal
forgetfulness of old age might eventually be treatable.
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center examined
brains, young and old ones, donated from people who died without
signs of neurologic disease. They discovered that a certain gene
in a specific part of the hippocampus, the brain's memory
center, quits working properly in older people. It produces less
of a key protein.  That section of the brain, called the dentate
gyrus, has long been suspected of being especially vulnerable to
aging. Importantly, it's a different neural neighborhood than
where Alzheimer's begins to form.  But it's circumstantial
evidence that having less of that protein,