We have an area in the brain called the hippocampus. This is where our memory lies, among other things. It is nice to have. But sometimes it doesn’t work as it should. Because in the course of a year approximately 300 Norwegians experience what is called temporary amnesia. In the technical language, the condition is called transitory global amnesia. Everything goes black, and it takes several hours for the memories to return. But until now it has been difficult to find the right diagnosis for these patients. The brain has often looked normal on subsequent examinations. Now, however, there may be hope for finding answers. A very special MRI machine, at a staggering NOK 98 million, can help solve both this and other mysteries. It can see the brain more clearly and in more detail than ever before. Feeling strange in the head Per Kristian Langøy had recently returned home from work. He felt both tired and strange. After a trip to the toilet, things go dark. Then he suddenly remembers nothing. – I think I told her at home that now something strange is happening. I don’t remember the dinner ahead of time, and I must have rehearsed myself a lot, says Langøy to news. Both he and his wife work in a hospital, and they immediately called the emergency room. Stroke was the first thing to hit them. But that turned out not to be the case. The trip to the south ended Langøy was then sent to hospital, where he was kept for a day for observation. After a few hours the memory returned. He explains that there was more or less a whole month of memories that disappeared during this period. – We had been in the South one to two weeks before this happened, and I remembered nothing of that. He also (naturally) doesn’t remember what it was like to lose his memory. – Now things are going very well. It was probably those closest to me who had it worst. – It happens quite urgently Thanh P. Doan is a neurologist at St. Olav’s hospital and a brain researcher at NTNU. Together with colleagues, he has carried out a new study, in which Langøy has participated. – This is a syndrome on which there is little research. One loses short-term memory without knowing the cause. And it happens quite urgently. It’s an interesting syndrome, since you recover completely by yourself, says the neurologist. Around 300 people in Norway experience this every year. Most are in their 60s and are described as healthy. But many of those who experience short-term memory loss do not get an answer to what has happened. – It can be challenging to make a reliable diagnosis, says Doan. Because normal MRI machines do not always pick up the changes that take place inside the hippocampus, he explains further. But with the help of the new MRI machine, they have now been able to confirm many more cases than before. Thanh P. Doan hopes the new MRI machine will also reveal new things about diseases such as Alzheimer’s and epilepsy. Photo: Jøte Toftaker / news Number of diagnoses doubled Thirteen patients with temporary memory loss have taken part in the new research. The patients were examined between 13 and 23 hours after the memory disappeared. With the new machine, they could give far more people an exact diagnosis. It showed changes in the brain in more than twice as many patients compared to previous trials. – With the new machine, we see the memory center in the brain in more detail. That’s what Runa Geirmundsdatter Unsgård says. She is a radiologist at St. Olav’s Hospital and a doctoral candidate at NTNU. This also means that the treatment can be better, and not least correct. – It is reassuring for people to get confirmation that this is not dangerous, says Thanh P. Doan. Erik Magnus Berntsen and Runa Geirmundsdatter Unsgård are radiologists at St. Olav’s hospital, as well as authors of the study. Photo: Jøte Toftaker / news Sex, gardening and wedding speeches As Per Kristian Langøy explained, not much is remembered from such an incident. But for many, the fear still lingers. Could it happen again? And why did it happen to me? And this is exactly what the doctors have also had difficulty understanding. Because some triggers are known – and they vary quite a bit, one can safely say. Well-known triggers are: sex, cold shock, conflicts, wedding speeches (emotions run high), or that you get a little too enthusiastic about gardening… But common to the vast majority is some form of mental or physical strain. Now the researchers hope that the new MRI machine will be able to provide better answers to all these questions. And that it can also help solve other medical puzzles. Among diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s. – In Norway, we have great expertise in the hippocampus and research in this area. Now the idea is to build new translational research projects based on this article, says the neurologist in Trondheim.
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New MRI machine sees the brain in detail – can answer why someone loses their memory for hours – news Trøndelag
