Researchers Design Memory-Strengthening Implant 72
Antipater writes "Researchers at Wake Forest University have created a brain implant that can imitate signals through the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory retention. Rats implanted with the device were able to remember information even after their hippocampus was shut down, reports the New York Times. Though still in its infancy, this technology could hopefully be used to help treat dementia or stroke victims."
Repeat after me... (Score:3)
...Borg!
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Neither of them does. The cyborg, however...
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Borg borg borg...
(sung to the tune of the Swedish Chef muppet)
As long as I can delete stuff too (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, is it possible to transplant this device from one rat to another, and give it fake memories? Maybe the way to see is let a rat solve a maze several times over, and then hook it up to another mouse and let it go. If that is the case, put WIFI on it, and let Rats have a communal memory bank too.
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There are differences between memory, experience, wisdom, indoctrination, and conditioning. I "know" how to drive a stick shift. I have never actually driven a stick shift. I am fairly certain that should I ever actually get stuck in a situation where I have to drive a stick without practicing first, I should upload the results to fAil Blog.
Re:As long as I can delete stuff too (Score:4, Funny)
"I know Kung Fu."
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Depending upon your standards and tolerance for repairing the damage, driving stick isn't hard. You can always restrict yourself to first gear and barely have to worry about shifting. The tough thing is that you probably don't want to have to buy several new transmissions as you perfect your skills. Motorcycle transmissions OTOH are a lot more forgiving as they're designed so that you ride the clutch frequently.
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Where is here? Here in the US automatics are more common than stick by a large margin and have been for 20yrs. Unless you are traveling between cities you won't have to use anything but local streets with speed limits approaching but not passing 40mph.
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You are a naive fool. Internet shock pictures lose any power over you in seconds, unless you are such a backwards thinking individual that you cannot rationalize them. SOME PEOPLE LIKE SPREADING THEIR ASSHOLES WITH GIANT DILDOS THEN SHOWING THEM TO A CAMERA. Get over it.
If that's the extent of your shock-picture experience, I can assure you there are far, far worse. Just keep browsing slashdot at -1 and eventually you'll see all of them.
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That wasn't shocking.
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good move. That way you have no memory and get to experience the shock again.
10 Girls and one cup? Sure I'll take a look.
20 Horror
30 Delete
40 Goto 10
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If that is the case, put WIFI on it, and let Rats have a communal memory bank too.
So long, concept of personal identity. I always figured robots would be the ones to have a shared identity. It never occurred to me humans might too.
Real world test milestone (Score:2)
Can it enable me to remember where the hell I put my sunglasses?
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Only if you remember first where you put your memory.
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Can it help you say something witty before putting on your sunglasses?
YAAAAAAHHHHHH!
I have the perfect use for this! (Score:1)
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I need to watch that, I've heard it's not good, but the effects looked kind of cool.
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Seeing Keanu Reeves scream to the world, "I! WANT! ROOM SERVICE!" makes it all worth it.
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My impression is thus:
If you haven't read much Gibson, then it's a mismash of half-baked ideas without the development and focus to carry it through.
If you're a Gibson fan, by contrast, the context from the books/stories/etc make the movie make a good deal of sense, and thereby into a moderately fun flick.
Great (Score:2)
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It's only 2000 caps from the Followers of the Apocalypse.
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phew, that's a pricey memory implant. I'd start with +1's to make sure all is well first
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He's clearly going downhill. He had a friend give his lecture on assisted suicide, and his books aren't what they used to be. Still better than I could write, but a day is coming when he won't be himself. If he wants to die before he has to face every day trapped in a mind that is no longer him, or wants to wait until he's gone and then can't do it himself, I see no reason that someone shouldn't help him.
In the UK suicide is the only act which is legal alone, but not with assistance.
Hippocampus grades for production, not retention (Score:1)
I'm a neuroscientist so I have to interject regarding an inaccuracy.
The hippocampus is critical for generating declarative, conscious memory but not for retaining it. Long-term "storage" falls under the purview of parietal cortex, which as a system of neurons generally is involved with associations draw between sensory stimuli and the organism. You can teach a rat to spatially navigate to a platform to get out of a small pool (because rats hate being soaked), get them up to criterion, and then bilaterally a
Misread it as... (Score:1)
Rats! (Score:2)
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Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky?
Shut it Down (Score:2)
...researchers used a drug to shut down the activity of CA1. Without CA1 online, the rats could not remember which lever to push to get water.
Weed. It was weed wasn't it?
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...researchers used a drug to shut down the activity of CA1. Without CA1 online, the rats could not remember which lever to push to get water.
Weed. It was weed wasn't it?
They can't remember what was it.
Your Kindle was just obsoleted. (Score:2)
Hope you didn't sink too much money into books in e-reader form.
Because you're just going to buy them again in e-recaller form.
Too much memory? (Score:2)
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but imagine being unable to forget gritty details as well.
For people that just don't care, that wouldn't matter (as in, people that aren't easily saddened or angered or people that don't feel emotions). I'd like to remember everything ("bad" things included).
Re:Too much memory? (Score:4, Interesting)
PTSD is more about being unable to leave the memories, pretty much anything you spend that much time thinking about is going to stick. If you repeated think about a specific page out of the phonebook over and over and over again all day long, you'll store that information indefinitely. It's not likely to be of any use, but if you concentrate on in long enough for enough iterations that will be with you permanently.
It's probably more closely related to the problems of schizophrenia, one of the hypothesis surrounding it is that it's caused by hyperlearning and an eidetic memory. I'm not sure ultimately what the verdict will be when all is said and done, but if you look at the symptoms, it wouldn't be surprising. Folks that are overwhelmed by information overload tend to have trouble sorting and assembling information in meaningful ways.
Good! My Scientology Brain Implant, Which Is Evil, (Score:1)
forced me to take plasticized Dextromethorphan cough syrup ("Delsym") for fourteen days until I had a left frontal lobe hemorrhage!! AND... now my working memory is devastated! This is an even better development than the noise-cancelling implant I thought I'd need to make the first one go away. It could undo some of the damage!
No-one listened to me! I complained about my scientology head chip for eight months before that happened! Now my brain hemorrhage is eight months old and allll of you let this happen!
And what information do they remember? (Score:1)
"My hippocampus hurts!"
But Still (Score:1)
To be clear, I'm glad this new thing exists.
Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering? (Score:1)
"I think so, Brain, but where are we going to find a duck and a hose at this hour?" ... ooh, it's all too much for me."
"I think so, but where will we find an open tattoo parlor at this time of night?"
"Wuh, I think so, Brain, but if we didn't have ears, we'd look like weasels."
"Uh... yeah, Brain, but where are we going to find rubber pants our size?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career
"Wuh, I think so, Brain, but isn't Regis Philbin already married?"
"Wuh, I think so, Brain, but burlap
Singularity (Score:2)
Did anybody else read this and think of the singularity? I sure did.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity [wikipedia.org]
SixD
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Great... (Score:1)
There's an app for that (Score:2)
Awesome (Score:1)
F**king incredible?!?! (Score:1)
This blows my mind. A good thing an implant can fix that.