TY - JOUR T1 - RAM disease and other musings JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 752 LP - 753 VL - 57 IS - 542 AU - Alfred Philip Lake Y1 - 2007/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/57/542/752.abstract N2 - Communicating with the patient and often their relatives too, is a key component of the consultation process, more important now than ever. Patients derive benefits from a properly conducted listening and information exchange session which can often be improved by not only speaking their language but also appropriately using visual and other aids, or easily understood analogies. Computers are now ubiquitous within our society and their language and functions are understood by all groups including, increasingly, the older people by whom greater use is actively encouraged. Using computing-based analogies can, therefore, be very useful to explain and inform as an adjunct to properly honed communication skills.The central processing unit is our brain. As we age, the associated hard drive becomes cluttered with fragmented information (our life), which can become increasingly difficult to access. We all know about the slowing recall with sought-for information often popping up later, we don't know exactly where to look. The search function of our operating system gets there in the end but takes a varying amount of time to build the screen piecemeal.The function of memory is vulnerable to a range of pathological processes including neurodegenerative conditions associated with accumulations of proteinaceous materials, which can be fatal. The dementias, prion diseases, and others, are associated with amyloid plaques; a clogged-up system. In Alzheimer's disease for example, amyloid protein deposits are widespread throughout the cerebral cortex, hippocampus and amygdala, particularly the temporal lobe, together with a loss of nerve cells. Memory disturbances are often the most disabling feature of such conditions.1 Different forms of memory are dependent upon distinct neuroanatomic systems with episodic … ER -