Gary Brecka argues that Alzheimer's doesn't erase memories but blocks access to them. Neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques disrupt communication between the hippocampus, where memories live, and the prefrontal cortex where consciousness resides. If that pathway could be restored, memories might be recoverable.
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 two areas of the brain. As these areas of the brain develop something called neurofibrillary tangles, as as 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.
