Memory Loss Is Not Always Alzheimer's

Apr. 20 - KGO -- Do you keep losing your car in a parking lot? U.C. Berkeley researchers may have figured out why.

There's good news for many who worry that mild memory loss is the first sign of Alzheimer's disease. As ABC7's Dr. Dean Edell reports, U.C. Berkeley researchers have now discovered a very different explanation for senior forgetfulness

At the University of California Berkeley, Judy is getting trained before taking part in a unique study on how aging affects our memory. She has a personal reason to want to participate.

Judy Wessing, study participant: "At one point my mother had a diagnosis of Alzheimer's and I could remember how frightening that was, not only because of her condition but the impact it could have on my sister and mine."

It turned out her mom didn't have Alzheimer's. Nevertheless, she still worries sometimes still surface.

Judy Wessing, study participant: "I think everybody I know who's over 60 has had moments where they think, 'Am I losing it?"

At one time or another, almost all of us over 50 have lost their car in a parking lot or misplaced their keys. And in most cases, those so-called senior moments are not early Alzheimer's disease. We blame them on lack of focus when you park, but now U.C. Berkeley research finds simple distraction may be the blame.

Now Judy gets to put her initial training to use. She lies down in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, or FMRI, that allow scientists to watch her brain as she thinks. She is shown a series of photos of faces and places and told to focus on some and ignore other images. The research shows, compared to younger subjects, most seniors aren't able to ignore images they're supposed to. Instead they get distracted by them.

Adam Gazzaley, M.D., PhD, U.C Berkeley neuroscientist: "We tell them this information you should not pay attention to, and by looking at their brain activity we see that they are distracted by it because they are recording the information much more than they should be, much more than the young subject did."

And much like overloading a computer hard drive, irrelevant and distracting information fills up seniors' brains, preventing them from focusing.

Dr. Adam Gazzaley: "You only have so much capacity for information, so much memory capacity, so by taking in information that is irrelevant you are sort of clogging up the system in preventing really high-level performance."

For Judy, this is actually her third memory test with Berkeley scientists. She passed the first two with flying colors and hopes to do so again today.

Judy Wessing, study participant: "On the whole, the whole experience has been very reassuring. While I may think I'm losing it, I'm not losing it as badly as I could."

And that's always worth remembering.

Researchers now hope to use this technology to design and evaluate therapies to improve memory and attention for all ages.

To learn more about the distracted brain effect on memory, click here.

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