IRVINE : UCI Researcher Studies Drug Effects on Memory

How do drugs and hormones affect memory?

A UC Irvine research specialist is using an $860,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study this question. Dr. James McGaugh, chairman of the department of psychobiology and director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, will test the effects on memory of drugs injected into specific brain sites of test animals.

In previous experiments, McGaugh and co-workers established that certain hormones and neurotransmitters can enhance a brain’s ability to store information. One finding was that rats given a low dose of adrenaline shortly after learning a task will display improved memory of the task when tested later.

McGaugh’s theory is that adrenaline triggers receptors that stimulate the release in the brain of a chemical that facilitates memory storage.

University officials said that understanding how information is stored can lead to treatment for people with memory disorders related to aging.