The data was then processed and showed people with schizophrenia had fewer successful "dockings" in the left hippocampus area in the brain - an area known to be involved in learning, perception and memory - than healthy people.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Schizophrenia chemical flaw clue

Targacept's pill is more refined, he says, because it binds with a subtype of neuronal nicotinic receptor situated mostly in parts of the brain that process sensory information and aid in learning and short-term memory.

FORBES: The Nicotine Cure

Researchers at Stanford University and MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory had activated light-sensitive neurons in the brain's hippocampus involved in the memory of fright.

WSJ: Scientists Cast Light Onto Roots of Illness Deep in the Brain

Access to stimulating activities appeared to block the harmful effects of oligomers on the cellular mechanisms underlying learning and memory, called long-term potentiation (LTP), researchers said.

WSJ: Why Young Children Don't Notice Coming Cars

They also showed that injecting normal mice with extra ghrelin increased the number of synapses in the hippocampus - and improved the animals' performance in several learning and memory tests.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Hunger pangs 'may trigger memory'