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Scientists Write Memories Directly Into Fly Brains
TheClockworkSoul writes "Researchers at the University of Oxford have devised a way to write memories onto the brains of flies, revealing which brain cells are involved in making bad memories. The researchers said that in flies, just 12 brain cells were responsible for what is known as 'associative learning.' They modified these neurons by adding receptors for ATP, so that the cells activate in the presence of the chemical, but since ATP isn't usually found floating around a fly's brain, the flies generally behave just like any other fly. Most interestingly, however, is that the scientists then injected ATP into the flies' brains, in a form that was locked inside a light-sensitive chemical cage. When they shined a laser on the fly brains, the ATP was released, and the 'associative learning' cells were activated. The laser flash was paired with an odor, effectively giving the fly a memory of a bad experience with the odor that it never actually had, such that it then avoided the odor in later experiments. The researchers describe their findings in the journal Cell."
The scientists later discovered that even fly's without this injected memory avoided the odor. One man was quoted saying "It smelled pretty bad."
Wouldn't having a laser pointed at your brain in the presence of an odor kind of count as a 'bad experience'?
I'm not sure how you create a control group for an experiment like this- shine the laser in the absence of odors so the fly is terrified of clean places? Isn't that how most flies act already?
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
In my day we just ripped their wings off. This new stuff is REALLY sick...
sudo mount --milk --sugar
Help me!
WHOA, I know Kung-Fu!
Rules of Conduct:
#1 - The DM is always right.
#2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
Hmm... let's see here..
Bad odor.... Check.
Laser beam directed INTO the brain.... uh... Check.
"Bad memories" induced.... err... Check.
And in other news... sugar tastes good.
They stole this idea from Joss Whedon.
Ahhhh....the beaches, the babes, all that free cake... I sure am gonna miss Vietnam.
We could put it on a no-fly list.
^..^
It's like that car you owned last year which you didn't.
You've never actually had a girlfriend, have you? It's ok. Someone probably just implanted the odor of her in your brain and associated it with random stereotypes that apply only to 13 year olds. And yes, AC, she was very pretty... Just look into this light, and it's all going to work out.