Gary Brecka argues Alzheimer's patients don't actually lose memories, they lose access to them. Memories stay stored in the hippocampus, but amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles break the communication pathway to the prefrontal cortex where consciousness lives. If that connection could be restored, the memories might come back.
The big lie about Alzheimer's is that people are losing their memory. These patients are not losing their memory. They're losing access to their memory, and access can be restored. Your memory resides in an area of the brain called the hippocampus. Your consciousness resides in an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. The way that we connect our outside environment to our past is by connecting these 2 areas of the brain. As these areas of the brain develop something called neurofibrillary tangles, they develop things called amyloid plaques. We interrupt this communication and we say grandma or grandpa is losing his memory. That's not true. The memory is there. They just can't access it.
Perimenopause Symptoms Can Start in Your Late 30s - Dr. Remina Panjwani | TUH 312
