Question: how does your brain work on a patients memory help and what will be the long term affect

Michael Craig answered on 8 Mar 2013:

Hi Pigeonhunter5000,

That’s an interesting question. My work looks to help people who have Alzheimer’s disease, and it is the charity the Alzheimer’s Society who fund my work. We have found that if we give people with Alzheimer’s a short period of rest immediately after learning something new then their memory for the newly learned information can be improved massively. We find that there is also a long-term benefit on memory with people still being able to remember more of the new information after one week.

This may not sound amazing to be able to remember new things after a week but people with Alzheimer’s often cannot remember ANY new information at all, so this is a huge improvement on that! One of my studies is also looking at using this short period of resting after learning to help people navigate their way through a new enviornment. To do this I’ve been using virtual reality environments on my computer where people control their movement through the environment. We hope to see the same benefit that we have seen before and that people will find it easier to remember their way through a new place after having a short rest.

This could have a huge positive effect on people with Alzheimer’s who often get lost in new places, and sometimes even in places they’ve lived all their life. If we could show a long-term benefit of this as well it would be even better. Fingers crossed!

I hope that answers your question, let me know if you’d like to know more!
Michael