I wonder if it is possible to make a drug that activates the Npas4 gene. A smart drug that would make you remember better could help old people.
People who have great memory might more easily activate the Npas4 gene. Could this be measured?
It's vary unlikely that a single gene does more than harm memory creation if missing. If for no other reason than we call several different processes 'memory' even though physically learning a skill is different from memorizing a poem or remembering where your key's are.
Long term memory formation presumably involves protein synthesis, which depends on a number of transcription factors and other molecules. Up until now the most studied transcription factor is CREB, which has been shown to enhance, inhibit, and direct memory in cells, depending on the manipulation. They now identify one gene, but it's not the only one; there's probably many other factors, proteins and second messengers involved. Similar results of npas4 knockout have been reported in the amygdala: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...
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