2009 ChessBase April Fool joke

[MattieShoes]

A story from CBS which talks about the rat experiment and pills to make you "forget"

[Uri Blass]

Of course there are supplements which enhance memory function. What they don't do, however, is automatically increase one's skill in a specific chess opening!

Name one? Memory enhancing drugs are not that good yet let alone supplements.

Anyway you missed the point of the April Fool's Prank, as ChessBase was reeling them in with factual stories.

That was the real joke!

I can say that
Lecithin helped my memory after I forgot some telephone numbers that I remembered in the past and my memory got back to the level that it was earlier.

people can say that maybe it is because I believe that it help me and it is not because of the lecithin but I do not believe it.

I read that some food supplements can help the memory and I believe in it.

It is logical to believe that what we eat has some influence on what we remember.

Uri

Sure it does. It helps you remember what you ate. But there are absolutely _no_ drugs of any kind proven to help memory. Absolutely none.

Some notes:
1)People never proved something does not mean that it is wrong.


2)It is possible that some vitamin is productive to the memory of one part of the population and counter productive for another part so if you calculate average you can find nothing but it does not prove that the specific vitamin cannot help the memory of part of the world.

Uri

It's possible that space aliens can land, shine a ray gun on your head, and turn you into Albert Einstein. Or a puddle of goo.

However, ask a _doctor_ about this nonsense... A good neurologist will do...

I think that it is dependent on the doctor and most doctors simply do not know.

I remember reading about many supplements in 2 books and one of them
is written by doctor ray strand(I remember the recommendation for
lecithin about memory from a different book that also recommended other supplements).

I think that doctors are often connected with the medicine companies and the medicine company have no interest to discover that some cheap vitamin may help health problems when people are going to stop using more expensive medicine and it is the reason that not much research is done about the effect of vitamin and food on people.

Uri

[gerold]

Of course there are supplements which enhance memory function. What they don't do, however, is automatically increase one's skill in a specific chess opening!

Name one? Memory enhancing drugs are not that good yet let alone supplements.

Anyway you missed the point of the April Fool's Prank, as ChessBase was reeling them in with factual stories.

That was the real joke!

I can say that
Lecithin helped my memory after I forgot some telephone numbers that I remembered in the past and my memory got back to the level that it was earlier.

people can say that maybe it is because I believe that it help me and it is not because of the lecithin but I do not believe it.

I read that some food supplements can help the memory and I believe in it.

It is logical to believe that what we eat has some influence on what we remember.

Uri

Sure it does. It helps you remember what you ate. But there are absolutely _no_ drugs of any kind proven to help memory. Absolutely none.

Are you sure? There certainly are substances deteriorating memory, I wouldn't be surprised if there are (or will be) drugs helping memory. The only problem with Uri's testimony is that he didn't compare the effect of lecithin with a placebo (unknowingly so), he just compared with the state prior to lecithin taking, which is a biased experiment.

Kai

General consensus is that there is no "compound" involved in memory that is not made inside the body. Cells age naturally, encoded in their DNA, and this is the thing one has to combat, which means some sort of gene therapy one day might do the trick, but not a simple chemical compound.

Recent studies show that Adrenalin is a factor in memory retention. That is, information that is acquired in the state of high adrenalin are remembered more (instantly, and long term - difficult to forget). It is as if adrenalin has that 'binding' effect.

In a particular experiment, a rat is placed on a water tank, and it moved around until it found a platform somewhere. They repeated the procedure the next day, and the rat again moved around until it found the platform. They don't remember that the previous day they have gone through the same, and that that there is a platform in a fixed location.

Then, in another set of rats, they were injected with adrenalin. On day two (second attempt), the rats went directly to the platform. They remembered their experience from the previous day.

This apparently explains why experiences in high adrenalin state are difficult to forget. This includes dramatic experiences, like war or combat, or life and death situations.

Does this mean I will never forget the time Sandra Jean Ott broke my heart in the 6th grade? Thats just great!!

Sandra Jean was great.

[bob]

Of course there are supplements which enhance memory function. What they don't do, however, is automatically increase one's skill in a specific chess opening!

Name one? Memory enhancing drugs are not that good yet let alone supplements.

Anyway you missed the point of the April Fool's Prank, as ChessBase was reeling them in with factual stories.

That was the real joke!

I can say that
Lecithin helped my memory after I forgot some telephone numbers that I remembered in the past and my memory got back to the level that it was earlier.

people can say that maybe it is because I believe that it help me and it is not because of the lecithin but I do not believe it.

I read that some food supplements can help the memory and I believe in it.

It is logical to believe that what we eat has some influence on what we remember.

Uri

Sure it does. It helps you remember what you ate. But there are absolutely _no_ drugs of any kind proven to help memory. Absolutely none.

Some notes:
1)People never proved something does not mean that it is wrong.


2)It is possible that some vitamin is productive to the memory of one part of the population and counter productive for another part so if you calculate average you can find nothing but it does not prove that the specific vitamin cannot help the memory of part of the world.

Uri

It's possible that space aliens can land, shine a ray gun on your head, and turn you into Albert Einstein. Or a puddle of goo.

However, ask a _doctor_ about this nonsense... A good neurologist will do...

I think that it is dependent on the doctor and most doctors simply do not know.

I remember reading about many supplements in 2 books and one of them
is written by doctor ray strand(I remember the recommendation for
lecithin about memory from a different book that also recommended other supplements).

I think that doctors are often connected with the medicine companies and the medicine company have no interest to discover that some cheap vitamin may help health problems when people are going to stop using more expensive medicine and it is the reason that not much research is done about the effect of vitamin and food on people.

Uri

There are two kinds of doctors. Ones that are in practice and seeing patients, and the medical companies exert great influence on which drugs they prescribe. I agree. I'm talking about the non-practice doctors that are doing basic research. We have such groups here at UAB. And I've heard that question asked more than once, with the answer generally being "assuming you are in good health, and eating a reasonable diet, medications to improve your memory, your brain function, even the size of your you-know-what are simply a myth not supported by any legitimate double-blind study. Getting sworn testimonials is one thing. But objectively measuring the improvement in a scientific way is something else entirely.

[bob]

Of course there are supplements which enhance memory function. What they don't do, however, is automatically increase one's skill in a specific chess opening!

Name one? Memory enhancing drugs are not that good yet let alone supplements.

Anyway you missed the point of the April Fool's Prank, as ChessBase was reeling them in with factual stories.

That was the real joke!

I can say that
Lecithin helped my memory after I forgot some telephone numbers that I remembered in the past and my memory got back to the level that it was earlier.

people can say that maybe it is because I believe that it help me and it is not because of the lecithin but I do not believe it.

I read that some food supplements can help the memory and I believe in it.

It is logical to believe that what we eat has some influence on what we remember.

Uri

Sure it does. It helps you remember what you ate. But there are absolutely _no_ drugs of any kind proven to help memory. Absolutely none.

Are you sure? There certainly are substances deteriorating memory, I wouldn't be surprised if there are (or will be) drugs helping memory. The only problem with Uri's testimony is that he didn't compare the effect of lecithin with a placebo (unknowingly so), he just compared with the state prior to lecithin taking, which is a biased experiment.

Kai

General consensus is that there is no "compound" involved in memory that is not made inside the body. Cells age naturally, encoded in their DNA, and this is the thing one has to combat, which means some sort of gene therapy one day might do the trick, but not a simple chemical compound.

Recent studies show that Adrenalin is a factor in memory retention. That is, information that is acquired in the state of high adrenalin are remembered more (instantly, and long term - difficult to forget). It is as if adrenalin has that 'binding' effect.

In a particular experiment, a rat is placed on a water tank, and it moved around until it found a platform somewhere. They repeated the procedure the next day, and the rat again moved around until it found the platform. They don't remember that the previous day they have gone through the same, and that that there is a platform in a fixed location.

Then, in another set of rats, they were injected with adrenalin. On day two (second attempt), the rats went directly to the platform. They remembered their experience from the previous day.

This apparently explains why experiences in high adrenalin state are difficult to forget. This includes dramatic experiences, like war or combat, or life and death situations.

That's a different animal. Daily injections of enough adrenalin to improve your memory would have consequences far worse than forgetting something here and there. It is more likely that this is not actually affecting memory, but affecting every aspect of metabolism, which heightens awareness and everything else. One also has a bit of a problem buying this substance over the counter.