Researchers Discover Gene That Helps Humans Process Information

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.