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Researchers Design Memory-Strengthening Implant
Antipater writes "Researchers at Wake Forest University have created a brain implant that can imitate signals through the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory retention. Rats implanted with the device were able to remember information even after their hippocampus was shut down, reports the New York Times. Though still in its infancy, this technology could hopefully be used to help treat dementia or stroke victims."
...Borg!
Memory is good to have, and it'd be fun to remember all sorts of things instead of having to look them up, but with Internet shock pictures, I want an option to delete stuff from memory too.
Also, is it possible to transplant this device from one rat to another, and give it fake memories? Maybe the way to see is let a rat solve a maze several times over, and then hook it up to another mouse and let it go. If that is the case, put WIFI on it, and let Rats have a communal memory bank too.
God spoke to me
I'll want one to get an edge over everyone else. And I'll keep getting upgrades.
Then we'll need laws to allow poor people to afford these implants so they can be competitive too. Of course the rich will have the best ones and get their kids some when they're toddlers to beat the middle class kids in school.
Can it enable me to remember where the hell I put my sunglasses?
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
...but I forgot it...
ShadowRun or Borg. One of those will be our future. Somehow.
I like both.
(yup, I wouldn't mind being a Borg drone)
"Hit me"
This is the first man/machine implant technology I'd actually consider going for.. assuming it'd be eventually released for general use as an "add-on"
Now all I need is 25 million ISK
Terry Pratchett shouldn't kill himself? The problem with making health judgments at this point in history is that there are these kinds of technologies in the near, albeit indeterminate future.
I'm a neuroscientist so I have to interject regarding an inaccuracy.
The hippocampus is critical for generating declarative, conscious memory but not for retaining it. Long-term "storage" falls under the purview of parietal cortex, which as a system of neurons generally is involved with associations draw between sensory stimuli and the organism. You can teach a rat to spatially navigate to a platform to get out of a small pool (because rats hate being soaked), get them up to criterion, and then bilaterally ablate hippocampus. The rat will show a slight performance hit, but can still perform the task. However, if you move the platform elsewhere, they're now at chance.
In the context of adding DIMM to your hippocampus, you'll be able to generate new declarative memories more effectively. How well someone retains that information depends on the degree of efficacy in sending memories from hippocampus to parietal cortex.
"Researchers Design Mammary-Strengthening Implant" Unfortunately my brain can only make one association with the word Implant.
Great but what could a rat know that's worth remembering?
...researchers used a drug to shut down the activity of CA1. Without CA1 online, the rats could not remember which lever to push to get water.
Weed. It was weed wasn't it?
Hope you didn't sink too much money into books in e-reader form.
Because you're just going to buy them again in e-recaller form.
I once read an anecdote about a person who could not forget to the point that it basically drove them insane. Having vivid memory of happy or otherwise useful experiences seems great to me, but imagine being unable to forget gritty details as well. You see some especially disturbing violence for example, and you are more likely to experience a cluster of symptoms known as PTSD. Imagine cues that trigger sad thoughts about a loss (death, breakup, etc) always triggering a full on PTSD-style reliving of the event. As I understand, we "forget", or are unable to access a lot of things we "remember". Would a constantly juiced hippocampus dispose you splitting, compartmentalization, and other phenomenon related to "detachment" from psychological stress? Certainly good science, and I can see a huge potential benefit, on the other hand, something like this really opens up a can of worms.
forced me to take plasticized Dextromethorphan cough syrup ("Delsym") for fourteen days until I had a left frontal lobe hemorrhage!! AND... now my working memory is devastated! This is an even better development than the noise-cancelling implant I thought I'd need to make the first one go away. It could undo some of the damage!
No-one listened to me! I complained about my scientology head chip for eight months before that happened! Now my brain hemorrhage is eight months old and allll of you let this happen! Oh, oh, ohhhhh....
Not fake, OK? Thanks :D
"My hippocampus hurts!"
"I think so, Brain, but where are we going to find a duck and a hose at this hour?" ... ooh, it's all too much for me."
"I think so, but where will we find an open tattoo parlor at this time of night?"
"Wuh, I think so, Brain, but if we didn't have ears, we'd look like weasels."
"Uh... yeah, Brain, but where are we going to find rubber pants our size?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career
"Wuh, I think so, Brain, but isn't Regis Philbin already married?"
"Wuh, I think so, Brain, but burlap chafes me so."
"Sure, Brain, but how are we going to find chaps our size?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but we'll never get a monkey to use dental floss."
"Are you pondering cheesesticks?"
"Uh, I think so Brain, but this time, you wear the tutu."
"I think so, Brain, but culottes have a tendency to ride up so."
"I think so, Brain, but if we covered the world in salad dressing wouldn't the aspargus feel left out?"
"I think so, Brain, but if they called them 'Sad Meals', kids wouldn't buy them!"
"I think so, Brain, but me and Pippi Longstocking -- I mean, what would the children look like?"
"I think so, Brain, but what would Pippi Longstocking look like with her hair straight?"
"I think so, Brain, but this time you put the trousers on the chimp."
"Well, I think so, Brain, but I can't memorize a whole opera in Yiddish."
"I think so, Brain, but there's still a bug stuck in here from last time."
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but I get all clammy inside the tent."
"I think so, Brain, but I don't think Kaye Ballard's in the union."
"Yes, I am!"
"I think so, Brain, but, the Rockettes? I mean, it's mostly girls, isn't it?"
"I think so, Brain, but pants with horizontal stripes make me look chubby."
"Well, I think so -POIT- but where do you stick the feather and call it macaroni?"
"Well, I think so, Brain, but pantyhose are so uncomfortable in the summertime."
"Well, I think so, Brain, but it's a miracle that this one grew back."
"Well, I think so, Brain, but first you'd have to take that whole bridge apart, wouldn't you?"
"Well, I think so, Brain, but 'apply North Pole' to what?"
"I think so, Brain, but 'Snowball for Windows'?"
"Well, I think so, Brain, but snort no, no, it's too stupid!"
"Umm, I think so, Don Cerebro, but, umm, why would Sophia Loren do a musical?"
"Umm, I think so, Brain, but what if the chicken won't wear the nylons?"
"I think so, Brain, but isn't that why they invented tube socks?"
"Well, I think so Brain, but what if we stick to the seat covers?"
"I think so Brain, but if you replace the 'P' with an 'O', my name would be Oinky, wouldn't it?"
"Oooh, I think so Brain, but I think I'd rather eat the Macarena."
"Well, I think so hiccup, but Kevin Costner with an English accent?"
"I think so, Brain, but don't you need a swimming pool to play Marco Polo?"
"Well, I think so, Brain, but do I really need two tongues?"
"I think so, Brain, but we're already naked."
Brain: We eat the box?
"Well, I think so, Brain, but if Jimmy cracks corn, and no one cares, why does he keep doing it?"
"I think so, Brain NARF, but don't camels spit a lot?"
"I think so, Brain, but how will we get a pair of Abe Vigoda's pants?"
"I think so, Brain, but Pete Rose? I mean, can we trust him?"
"I think so, Brain, but why would Peter Bogdanovich?"
"I think so, Brain, but isn't a cucumber that small called a gherkin?"
"I think so, Brain, but if we get Sam Spade, we'll never have any puppies."
"I think so, Larry, and um, Brain, but how can we get seven dwarves to shave their legs?"
"I think so, Brain, but calling it pu-pu platter? Huh, what were they thinking?"
"I think so, Brain, but how will we get the Spice Girls into the paella?"
"I think so, Brain, but if we give peas a chance, won't the lima beans feel left out?"
"I think so, Brain, but I am running for mayor of Donkeytown and Tuesdays are booked." From an early Kids' WB intro.
"I think so, Brain, but if we had a sno
To be clear, I'm glad this new thing exists.
Did anybody else read this and think of the singularity? I sure did.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
SixD
Hook that device up to the internet over wireless for real fun.
I have to have a stroke to get one of these?
Well, not quite. The hippocampus is more like a "hashtable". It stores the "indexices" into various parts of the brain, such as the parietal cortex, and certainly has a large role in retaining it. Systematic consolidation is certainly responsible for longer term memory in the range of years past initial formation, but by then it has also lost a lot of the fidelity.
That is what I use my Android phone for. I have post-it notes under the term buy, movie , song and so more. When I come across something I would like to remember ... I just plug it in ...
Dementia? Can I enlist my ex?
Oh, no! Now men won't be able to forget what was on the grocery list, directions to anywhere, and their wedding anniversaries! What is the world coming to? We are going to remember everything was our fault, too. Write your congressman!
so you think faster, but you may not learn more?
I can remember where I put my wallet with this.
This blows my mind. A good thing an implant can fix that.
Let me know when I can get an encylcopedic implant please. I'll be first in line.