RUB researchers examine Huntington’s gene mutation carriers
Severity of the genetic mutation related to learning
efficiency
People who bear the genetic mutation for Huntington’s
disease learn faster than healthy people. The more pronounced the mutation was,
the more quickly they learned. This is reported by researchers from the
Ruhr-Universität Bochum and from Dortmund in the journal Current Biology. The
team has thus demonstrated for the first time that neurodegenerative diseases
can go hand in hand with increased learning efficiency. “It is possible that
the same mechanisms that lead to the degenerative changes in the central nervous
system also cause the considerably better learning efficiency” says Dr.
Christian Beste, head of the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group “Neuronal
Mechanisms of Action Control” at the RUB.