The world's first memory pill could be a reality in the future after Canadian scientists identified a gene mutation in the brains of mice that affected their memories, media reported Monday.

The discovery was made when researchers suppressed the activity of the gene in mice before they swam around a water maze, noting that altered mice performed better.

Scientists found that altering the gene in mice led to marked improvement in a number of memory tests, leading to speculation that the discovery could have an impact on a possible cure for memory diseases such as Alzheimer's.

The scientists now hope to find molecules that target and inhibit the gene, which is also thought to exist in humans. Ultimately this could lead to a memory-enhancing pill, the suggest.

Mauro Costa-Mattioli, from McGill University, Montreal, said: "If such a pill could be generated, it might provide a new method for treating people with memory-related diseases such as Alzheimer's."

"While a drug that worked in this way wouldn't cure the disease itself, it might rescue the symptoms of memory loss," Mauro Costa-Mattioli said, adding the identified gene makes a regulatory protein called eIF2a, which normally keeps a check on memory.

However scientists also caution that any medication coming from the study is years away from human trials.

It would likely be targeted at people with organic memory problems associated with old age or Alzheimer's, and not for normally functioning people.

"There's an ethical issue," Costa-Mattioli said, "People wonder how much (memory) is too much."