Researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) believe they have isolated and identified a gene that processes information in the human brain — and might be the ticket to eventually curing cognitive diseases like Alzheimer's.

Available online at the website for the medical journal Molecular Psychiatry, their findings identify the gene as CADM2, and "suggest that genetic variation in the [Cell Adhesion Molecule 2] CADM2 gene is associated with individual differences in information processing speed," i.e., synapse organization, or the rapidity (or lack thereof) in which the brain processes and retains facts, figures and particulars. A member of the immunoglobulin superfamily, it is located adjacent to the cell membrane.

The sample UMMC used for their study consisted of men and women with cognitive functions fully intact found through the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium (Charge).

A protein that is produced by CADM2 is also involved in the ability to absorb and maintain both short-term and long-term memories; this particular link makes the gene (and others like it) ripe for further research.

Keep in mind (no pun intended) that there are indubitably a number of genes at play when it comes to cognitive functioning and that the team at UMMC have only discovered a particularly important one. However, at the same time, it is important to note that this is only a correlational study and it is only speculation as to how the gene influences cognition.

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