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鈥淲hen you鈥檙e a neuroscientist and you tell people that you study memory, everybody is interested, because everybody has a memory,鈥� Associate Professor of Psychology Teresa Barber begins, explaining a summer-research project she is conducting with students on the effects of certain natural substances on regaining memory. 

On the elevator ride to the lower level of James Hall in the Rector Science Complex, Barber explains that the seeds of the project sprouted from a mix of healthy scientific curiosity and nagging doubt surrounding the growing wave of herbal remedies pitched as memory aids. 鈥淭here are all these folk cures, and some newer ones you鈥檒l see in nutrition stores,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f you have Alzheimer鈥檚, you can take a couple of different drugs that can improve your memory, but I was a real cynic about [the efficacy of] any kind of herbal supplement.鈥� 

Tellingly, she used the word was.

So a few years ago, when one of Barber鈥檚 former students, neuroscience major Ashley Young 鈥�07, wanted to test the practical applications of research, Barber saw a chance to challenge her own skepticism head-on. 鈥淚 suggested to Ashley that we study gingko, which you hear so much about鈥攊t improves memory, is natural, etc. I didn鈥檛 think it would work, but 鈥� it did,鈥� she says with a smile that reveals her lingering surprise. 

鈥淔riends and family always ask me, 鈥業s there something I can take [to improve memory]? Something that isn鈥檛 pharmaceutical grade?鈥� 鈥� Pharmaceutical grade or not, what matters to Barber in the end is if the substance works, whether it grows in your backyard or is mass-produced in a factory. 

So with the results in on gingko, Barber and two rising seniors, Justin Williams and Ari Brouwer, set out this summer to test another natural substance: cumin, the dried seed of an herb in the parsley family. They have been assisted by rising first-year students Kimani Keaton and Briana Brown, participants in STEP, the National Science Foundation's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program. 

In her white lab coat, Barber stands in the sauna-like room where the experiment primarily takes place and explains the process. 鈥淲e present the animals with a little bead, and they peck at it. But it tastes bad, and they don鈥檛 like it and won鈥檛 peck it again.鈥� This is the natural response to tasting something disagreeable, of course. But what if they can make the subjects鈥攊n this case, chicks鈥攆orget how bad the bead tastes? And can they make them remember again?

This is where Williams and Brouwer come in. The pair is involved with every step of the process, starting with administering and testing the effects of a drug called scopolamine, which mimics the memory-loss effects of Alzheimer鈥檚 in humans, and the cumin, which can perhaps reverse those effects.

鈥淲e wait four hours for the drug to take effect and then come back and see what kind of memory the animals have,鈥� Williams explains. 鈥淭hen we discuss the results with Professor Barber.鈥�

鈥淲e found that if you give them scopolamine, they鈥檒l peck the bead again [because they have forgotten how bad it tasted before],鈥� Barber says. 鈥淭hen we see if the cumin reverses the scopolamine amnesia or if, by itself, it improves memory in animals given just saline.鈥�

Her students watch eagerly as she reveals what they have discovered. 

鈥淩ight now we have results that suggest that in dose response [the range within which the drug is effective], it does affect scopolamine amnesia but doesn鈥檛 improve memory by itself,鈥� she explains. 鈥淪o essentially, when your memory is intact, there鈥檚 not much you can do to improve it. But if your memory is impaired鈥攂y pathology or aging, perhaps鈥攖hen the substance will help improve memory.鈥�

With the cumin project winding down, Barber shakes her head a little at the idea that the end of the experiment brings real closure, and at the same time she sums up the scientific process nicely: 鈥淲hen we think we鈥檝e answered the question at hand, that doesn鈥檛 mean there aren鈥檛 more questions!鈥�

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