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Scientists Insert a Synthetic Memory Into the Brain of a Sleeping Mouse
the_newsbeagle writes: Scientists are learning how to insert fake memories into the brain via precise electrical stimulation (abstract). In the latest experiment, they gave sleeping mice a synthetic memory that linked a particular location in a test chamber to a pleasurable sensation. (At least they gave the mice a nice memory.)
The researchers first recorded the electrical signals from the mice's brains while the mice were awake and exploring the test chamber, until the researchers identified patterns of activity associated with a certain location. Then, when the mice slept, the researchers watched for those neural patterns to be replayed, indicating that the mice were consolidating the memory of that location. At that moment, they zapped a reward center of the mice's brains. When the mice awoke and went back into the chamber, they hung around that reward-associated location, presumably expecting a dose of feel-good.
The researchers first recorded the electrical signals from the mice's brains while the mice were awake and exploring the test chamber, until the researchers identified patterns of activity associated with a certain location. Then, when the mice slept, the researchers watched for those neural patterns to be replayed, indicating that the mice were consolidating the memory of that location. At that moment, they zapped a reward center of the mice's brains. When the mice awoke and went back into the chamber, they hung around that reward-associated location, presumably expecting a dose of feel-good.
Very early in the research, but man would this be a cool alternative to education. Take a nap, ready to start your PhD Thesis.
The obvious reason why this line of research is 'starting' now is that it is only with contemporary solid-state RF hardware that HAARP's sinister mind control can be miniaturized sufficiently for use on rodents in the laboratory, rather than mixed nuts worldwide.
It's not about learning, it's about habits. If you develop the tech for people, you can stimulate the reward centers for your own brain when consolidating memories of productive behaviors.
Brought tou you by Recall...
Maybe that electroshock therapy shit has some use after all...
Cue loud horn section from "Inception"
(At least they gave the mice a nice memory.)
First when K flashes Beatrice after she saw her "husband" inhale the sugar water, and later at the morgue, when K instructs the clean up crew to give the coroner a happy memory.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
worn that tinfoil hat I gave you.
Is there a corresponding pain center that could be zapped when the sleeping patient remembers smoking or taking drugs?
It's the beginning of Pinky and the Brain.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
Things like this will never get exploited by opportunistic Intelligence Agencies.
Let's sit back and watch them scramble over themselves to justify why they need this tech.
Yes slightly offtopic, but I bet they are funding the research.
This is the kind of thing that Ted Kaczynski warned about in his manifesto; he was particularly worried about neuroscience.
Brains mysteries are finall being unlocked.Very inpressive level of control.
That pretty much sums up my dating life.
Some settling may occur during posting.
It doesn't seem like what they did is really creating a "synthetic memory". It's taking an existing memory, and attaching (or perhaps even just re-enforcing) an emotion to it...
The memory of the place is the same, they just remember enjoying it more than they did at the time.
As a human you could do the same thing by visiting a famous place, then reading a really good story set there. Your own recollections of the place would have a fonder cast if you were even more excited about having been there.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wake me when they can zap a mouse and it can get to someplace it's never been before.
Just fucking great.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
This, along with the already known way to simply wipe-out certain memories, can go a long way towards establishing the "Right To Be Forgotten". Your ex, for example, may be able to obtain a court order for you to undergo the procedure to remove your memories of all the good times you had together...
Or, if that seems too draconian, have those memories replaced by your taking a hike or flying a kite...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Or you could just... you know... remotely compel everyone in a 2 mile radius to buy your pizza.
Why only when they remember bad things? After all, if they are a Bad Person(TM) then they don't deserve to do the things they enjoy like listening to Beethoven.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
...about how the brain consolidates memories in sleep, that, it's entirely possible that the brain organizes things in some order of least to most pain/fear. So... by zapping the pleasure center it may have actually turned the rest of the memory into a terrifying hell.
Now I just need to get my a** to mars
OK, now it makes sense. This is probably how Brian Williams and Bill O' Reilly came to believe in his own death defying ordeals in the course of news reporting.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
So stupid. Can you imagine hanging around a place waiting for a pleasure signal? Animals are so... wait a second, got to check the FaceTwitterSlashFark feed... nothing new, darn. Anyhow, animals are so... ooh, new update!
"Science: we're all about _coulda_ not about _shoulda_"
No doubt quite a few despots and TLAs are following this news closely.
Think of the Commercial applications! Kids hate peas? zap! they love 'em. McDonald sales down? Zap! New definition of 'Happy Meal'.
And think about the potential for changes to rehab...
Can someone zap the pleasure centers in my brain while I'm looking at a picture of a treadmill? Or better yet, am ON a treadmill?
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Didn't /. run an article on this before? Wait a minute, am I maybe part of the experiment...?
TWO...WEEKS
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01...
NSA: Confess, or we'll make you confess.
IV: Hell no.
NSA: Okay, please try again after your nap.
IV: What na....zzzzz
15 minutes later...
NSA: Wakey Wakey
IV: I confess, I did it, I did it.
I one up your TWO...WEEKS with my "There are FOUR LIGHTS!"
Why do you attack Mr Inside Edition who is a Hollywood editorialist rather than an asswipe that claimed to be a real journalist that spouted lies constantly. His friends said Williams would go entire days without being able to say a single thing that is true. There is no comparison between an entertainment editorialist and the lead journalist for a big three network news. Doing so shows you're stupid and hate humanity. That is the way of your kind. You Republicans hate us so you post stupid shit to give us headaches. Your claiming O'Reilly is a journalist is a bold face lie. He is not no matter how often your kind lies. You lie. Stop spouting lies. He is an editoriali8st. Fuck you and the rest of your stupid kind.
Que MIB neuralizer and Total Recall jokes.
No, seriously. Philip K. Dick warned us numerous times not to do this.
The IRS is funding this research with the hope of getting tax payers to look forward to paying their taxes, more often, larger, bigger, huger! Pretty soon you'll want to shovel your money into the IRS pockets so that you can feel that pleasure. It will be better than sex, better than chocolate. There will be a resulting reduction in world obesity and population.
I remember that maze quite well but I've never been there!
Greg Bear had this ability as central plot points in Eon and Eternity, and Peter F. Hamilton took it much deeper in Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.
If you dream it, it will come.
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
Just posting something real instead of this normal drivel. People can read about it themselves if they are interested.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/david-corn-response-oreilly-falklands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_O%27Reilly_%28political_commentator%29#War_coverage_claims
So if I am bad at sex and I zap my girlfriends's brain in her sleep at a precise moment with the help of a computer she will remember it as very pleasurable?
No video of the 'research', of course. Who cares, animals don't feel pain, do they? Oh, wait...
Does it show up as plug-n-play HID mouse device?
Read it.
that linked a particular location in a test chamber to a pleasurable sensation
GLaDOS, is that you? Have you been promising people cake again?
Memories do not work this way, I have researched and studied for the past 15 years.
Memories themselves are pointers to already learned events in relationship to other areas of the brain. Think of them as limited or partial scripts of what actually took place during the memory. Sometimes the brain records it near perfectly and sometimes it gets it completely wrong. The memory itself records what you have, in short term, all the aspects of the memory are snap shot images of the events, inserted at sections of the memory script and recalled in a fuzzy length. If a memory is repeated often or is tied to an emotional event, that is then pushed to long term memory.
It's a pretty complicated process.
why we're gonna do the same thing we do every night.....piky....try and take over the .....
So... You hate going to work? Let me fix this quickly.
Perhaps the mice were just wondering where the hell that deja-vu came from?
Well, perhaps not with outright electrical zaps to the brain, yet with other means like a deluge of mind bashing TV ads? The way that ads target aspects of human psych not related to the product being sold seems to be a similar tactic to convince one to buy a product; which seems to be unduly offensive and unethical. THIS is an area that needs severe regulation.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
Imagine how smart the average Congressperson would be if scientists injected them with synthetic memory every time they were sleeping.
Poor little mouse. Waiting for something nice. With electrodes in its brain.
Okay, I'll bite. Who writes science fiction that you like?
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."