Researchers Tweak Mouse Neurons To Activate Specific Memories 29
An anonymous reader writes "According to new study published in Nature (abstract), MIT researchers have figured out how to trigger specific memories in rats by hitting certain neurons with a pulse of light. From the article: 'The researchers first identified a specific set of brain cells in the hippocampus that were active only when a mouse was learning about a new environment. They determined which genes were activated in those cells, and coupled them with the gene for channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), a light-activated protein used in optogenetics. ... The light-activated protein would only be expressed in the neurons involved in experiential learning — an ingenious way to allow for labeling of the physical network of neurons associated with a specific memory engram for a specific experience. Finally, the mice entered an environment and, after a few minutes of exploration, received a mild foot shock, learning to fear the particular environment in which the shock occurred. The brain cells activated during this fear conditioning became tagged with ChR2. Later, when exposed to triggering pulses of light in a completely different environment, the neurons involved in the fear memory switched on — and the mice quickly entered a defensive, immobile crouch.'"
Re:Hollywood beat them to it (Score:2, Interesting)
While I have no doubt that some aspiring psychologist and neurosurgeons would work to create a read/write memory machine for the purposes of treating PTSD, (memory can't trigger if the memory is destroyed. Patient lives a happier and more normal life), it would only be a short jump for the tech on say, DARPA's hands, and you have more of a Universal Soldier type situation, and from there, real, genuine thought police.
Personally though, I look at this in the light of yesterday's news about microtubule structures that preserve memories encoded in axons electrochemically, coupled with a photosensitive protien.
Looks to me like the two sets of researchers are exploring differing parts of the same mechanism, and have discovered that their light sensitive protien triggers shaped memory playback in a neuron similarly to the electrical potential it would experience if it was stimulated by another neuron.
If this were coupled with say, genes for OLEDs, then a neural transiever wouldn't need to rely on invasive contact with the brain to interface meaningfully. Exchanged bursts of photons would be sufficient.
With some improvements in organic semiconductor (plastic) tech, it is entirely feasible to imagine somebody having their brains "painted" in the interface layer like spraypaint. (A water permeable photocuring biopolymer. Perhaps something like liquid silk, with a twist. Without being set by light, it biodegrades, limiting the retardation of the method used by the cerebreal spinal fluid for keeping the brain healthy. ) after that, a controled laser aperature draws all the circuits on top of the brain, passively coupling the synthetic with the biological with a tough, durable, and flexible substrate. A blood plasma tap off the corotid artery for a glucose power cell, and an antenna array printed onto the inside of the cranial cap, and you have yourself a programmable organism.
Pure science fiction at this point, but I could clearly see it happening (in at least a lab). The interface would not introduce any contaminating ions into the mix, and wouldn't be directly connected electronically to the brain. All communication would be photonically transmitted, both directions.
Ethics aside, it would make the manchurian candidate frightfully possible to create.