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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.
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.
Developing habits is arguably the most important form of education there is.
It's not just about eating your veggies and going to the gym; habits intrude on things which we normally think of as the domain of rational thought. If you hear somebody who disagrees with you do you rationally weigh his arguments or automatically dismiss them? What determines which of these alternatives you choose is habit.
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