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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01...
I one up your TWO...WEEKS with my "There are FOUR LIGHTS!"
Que MIB neuralizer and Total Recall jokes.
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.
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."
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.
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."