00:03You've probably heard the phrase miracle drug before, with some pharmaceutical providing
00:07some fantastical cure to an oft-maligning ailment.
00:10But now neuroscientists with the University of Groningen in the Netherlands might have
00:14found just that, as they have been able to restore lost memories for the first time.
00:19Memories are chemically encoded on the brain, so researchers were looking to unlock lost
00:23memories by reactivating those particular neural structures.
00:26Sleep deprivation is a known cause of memory loss, as it's required for the hippocampus
00:30to consolidate and store new memories.
00:32So researchers induced amnesia in mice by disallowing them sleep for a period of time, later reactivating
00:38memories in their brains via light, meaning they regained the lost memories if the physical
00:42part of the brain was kick-started.
00:44But light therapy is invasive, which is why they decided to give the memory retrieval a
00:48nudge with pharmaceuticals as well.
00:50They administered a drug called raflumilast, usually used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary
00:55disease to the amnesia-induced mice, finding that the drug was able to chemically kick-start
00:59the memory retrieval, with effects lasting for five days after administering it, meaning
01:04we could be one step closer to figuring out how to regain lost memories.
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