FALSE memories implanted in our brains?….There is only one comment to that, WE ARE SO FUCKED!!
Can we trick people into feeling scared? Scientists implant FALSE memories into the brains of mice
- Researchers created memories in mice using light pulses on the brain cells that control recall
- The memories were created while the mice were in a box considered to be a ‘safe place’
- They then recalled these memories in a second box while giving the mice electric shocks
- When the mice were returned to the ‘safe’ box they confused the original memories with those recalled during shocks and became scared
It is the stuff that Hollywood thrillers are made of: Planting an idea in someone’s mind.
In experiments that have turned science fiction into reality, researchers have succeeded in implanting a false memory.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. have shown it can be done in real life – at least in mice.
In experiments that have turned science fiction into reality, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have succeeded in implanting false memories into the brain of mice. By programming the brain cells that control recall, the researchers were able to successfully alter what the mice remembered
THE WORM THAT CAN REGROW ITS HEAD AND MEMORIES
Scientists have discovered that not only can the planarian worm regrow its head if its cut off, the regenerated brain contains the same memories that were stored in the decapitated one.
Researchers from Tufts University in Boston tested the memory of the planarian worms by measuring how long it took them to reach food in a lab environment.
The small yellow worms had been trained to ignore the bright lights in the lab so they could find their meals without being distracted and the scientists found that even after decapitation worms remembered this training.
The work echoes the plot of the 2010 film Inception, in which a ‘neurological spy’ played by Leonardo DiCaprio is hired to plant an idea in someone’s mind.
In fact, the process of creating a false memory is known as inception.
Researchers began by putting the animals in a box in which they felt safe.
They then zeroed in on the brain cells that were storing the animals’ memory of where they were and programmed the cells to ‘turn on the memory’ in light.
The next day, they put the mice in a second box and used pulses of light to reactivate the memory of the day before.
While this memory was being replayed, they gave the animals mild electric shocks.It was hoped this would alter the memory.
And it did. When the animals were put back in the first box, they froze in fear.
This is despite them having felt safe and not being given any electric shocks there.
This, say the scientists, means their memory of the first box was successfully altered to associate it with the pain of an electric shock. In other words, a false memory had been implanted.
The researchers said: ‘In this study, we believe we have for the first time succeeded in incepting, or implanting a false memory, in the mouse brain.’
Their experiments also showed that false and real memory trigger many of the same brain regions, making them very difficult to tell apart.
The concept of implanting memories into people’s brains was the plot of the 2010 film Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio, pictured, as Cobb