BBB FINAL

This neuron science class has helped me significantly understand how each part of our
brain works. grandma's Alzheimer's disease. As a kid, I grew up with my grandma; we
were very close throughout my whole life until she started to show symptoms of
Alzheimer's disease. It gets worse and worse each year, and I slowly forget my name
and who I am. Since I live in the U.S., but my grandma is back in China, we only meet
once yearly. I found it profoundly devastating when she could not remember who I was.
Thus, I did a lot of research on Alzheimer's and tried to help her get better.

After learning about professor Mason's class, I understand that my grandma has
probably lost a big part of the function of her Hippocampus, which in turn affects her
memories for both semantic and episodic. Since her Hippocampus function is
compromised, she can no longer form semantic or episodic memories. But since the
semantic memory stored in her Neocortex, she can still tell who is the chairman of the
country or the name of the longest river in China. However, episodic memories are
significantly impacted due to the lack of those memories' reconsolidation due to her
hippocampus dysfunction. I vividly remember when she started to show early
symptoms, like forgetting what she watched on TV, what she had for lunch, or where
she put the remote control. But since we did not understand Alzheimer's, we just
thought she was old. And as everybody says, older people tend to forget things. Thus
we didn't pay too much attention at first. And now I wish we had.

Gradually she gets worse. She started to forget words and call me my mom's name.
She forgot what date it was right after looking at the calendar. That's when we realized
she was sick. The breaking point was one day, she fell on the ground in the morning,
she just said she didn't remember what had happened. We took her to an exam in the
hospital, and the doctor told us her Hippocampus shrank and she had Alzheimer's
disease. Then I realized every single time I chat with her on a video call that, she is
getting worse. At first, she didn't remember what she had just watched on TV, then she
forgot my name entirely, even when I had just told her. And most recently, when I call
her, she cannot even remember me. As professor Mason mentioned, it happens
gradually but is very sad. We tried to help her by consulting many doctors and eating
some medicine. I even created some simple math tasks for her to do a bit of practice.
But none of them worked. It's heartbroken to see her get worse and worse. Now the
only family member she remembered is her husband, my grandpa, who passed away
eight years ago. I bet it would be terrifying for her that nothing looks familiar every day
when she gets up. I try to hug them more and spend more time with her, so she re-
enforces our memory even by a tiny bit. But the next time I call her again, she doesn't
even remember we talked. It feels helpless. I think I am losing her, and there is no way
of getting her back again.

I wish there were an elixir that could cure her or maybe even stop her disease from
advancing. Anyhow, by all means, after this course, I understand Alzheimer's disease is
not reversible. We can only try to cheer her up every day and keep talking to her. I hope
everyone can act ASAP once noticing any symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in your
family members. It would be of great help. Besides, I hope everyone out there is
healthy, and please take care of the people you love the most before it's too late.