A cluster of brain cells that are among the first to degenerate in Alzheimer’s disease were found in a study to be impaired in a rare form of amnesia that blocks autobiographical memories, and may be a future target to treat the dementia. Fourteen of 16 people with acute transient global amnesia, a rare type of temporary memory loss, had pronounced lesions on the cells known as CA1 neurons, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That suggests the neurons must work properly to let memories be gathered and catalogued for later use, said Gunther Deuschl, a neurologist at University-Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, Germany.
