French scientists have managed to conduct the first surgery in the history of science aimed at implanting memories in the brain of rodents. One day, this technology will help people.
Memory implantation surgery is the favorite subject of many sci-fi movies and books. It is worth recalling the Hollywood blockbuster “Total Recall” with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” with Jim Carrey. But it seems that the fantastic story is turned into a scientific reality.
Scientists from the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution in Paris have managed to transplant memory into the brains of laboratory mice, while the rodents were asleep. This makes it possible to use this technology on people in the future to change their memories. For example, to treat the victims of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Normally, the brain reproduces the information collected during the day, when a person or animal is in a state of sleep, which facilitates the learning process. Experts have found that if this process is disrupted in mice, their ability to memorize something new is also violated. The researchers used this to create new memories in the brains of the sleeping mice.
Scientists have focused on spatial cells that are neurons activated in response to the processes of thinking. During sleep, the mice brains were observed, and when the spatial cells were activated, the electrodes stimulated the zones of encouraging. Awakened after sleeping, the mice immediately headed for the places associated with encouraging. They were driven by the influence of pleasant memories that had been actually transplanted. This experiment now must be carried out on people.
