The larger the region of the brain called the hippocampus, the less likely a subject is to suffer from Alzheimer's, a team of North American neurologists has just revealed.
To verify this, the scientists studied the brains of 12 deceased subjects who had a keen memory at the time of their death and who, however, their autopsies revealed, had accumulated abundant beta-amyloid protein plaques in their brains. These brain lesions are the cause of Alzheimer's disease. After comparing their anatomy with the brains of 23 other deceased who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in life, they found that the only difference was that the former had 20% larger hippocampus. This region, whose shape is reminiscent of a seahorse, plays an essential role in the formation of new memories associated with experience, that is, in autobiographical memory .
The research findings are presented this week at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
Related articles . Report "The memory of the body" (VERY 287 | April 2005)
