Researchers Create Short-term Memories In Rat Brains 114
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers say they've found a way to store artificial short-term memories in isolated brain tissue. 'This is the first time anyone has found a way to store information over seconds about both temporal sequences and stimulus patterns directly in brain tissue,' says the study's lead. 'This paves the way for future research to identify the specific brain circuits that allow us to form short-term memories.' The peer-reviewed study can be found here (paywalled)."
This reminds me of a movie... (Score:5, Funny)
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Total Ratcall was it?
The original, I can only hope...
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No...in the original experiment, they used a gorilla. A very charming one, but still...
Re:This reminds me of a movie... (Score:4, Funny)
Unfortunately the artificial, implanted memories are all of cheese...
We can remember wholesale cheese for you? (Score:4, Funny)
You are in a maze of cheesy little movies, all alike?
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I was thinking Matrix myself.
"I know Kung Fu"...
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As Neo leaves the monkey house at the zoo...
"I know Flung Poo!"
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So did the mutant rat have a 13th boob
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Total Recall here we come (Score:2)
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Obligatory... (Score:1)
I know kung-fu.
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Sorry, I just forgot kung-fu.
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Putting Tin Foil hat on.... (Score:2)
This will then lead to implanting false memories in people....
Removing tin foil hat now....
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This will then lead to implanting false memories in people....
Removing tin foil hat now....
They are not false you insensitive clod.
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Removing tin foil hat now....
Only to find you were never wearing it in the first place!
Re:Putting Tin Foil hat on.... (Score:5, Interesting)
There really is no justification for this type of research. I can't think of any possible good use, and the potential for abuse is sky-high. Implanting artificial memories would never be a good thing to do under any circumstances.
Understanding the mechanics of memory may lead to breakthroughs which could cure diseases like Alzheimer's.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Putting Tin Foil hat on.... (Score:5, Interesting)
There is also a very good link between insulin overload and plaque formation (rather the inability of the brain tissue to breakdown plaque due to insulin overload eg it's too busy breaking down insulin). This in turn is brought about by obesity aka type 2 diabetes when looking at early onset Alzheimer's (old age also inhibits plaque breakdown).
Re:Putting Tin Foil hat on.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, they know that the plaques impair brain function by inference, they don't understand how, because no one knows what a memory is. Face it, we know a lot about the physical structure of the brain, but we don't really know how it works. Asserting that we understand the process of memory because we know a few things about a disease linked to memory is false equivalence. It's equally disingenuous to suggest that knowing more about how memories are formed, stored, and accessed would have no practical benefit when trying to understand and treat diseases which affect memory.
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we know a lot about the physical structure of the brain, but we don't really know how it works.
Yeah, neuroscientists are like engineers trying to reverse-engineer Angry Birds source code with an electron microscope.
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The direct cause of aircraft crashes (Score:3)
Re:Putting Tin Foil hat on.... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the plaque correlation is rather weak. Most like a soluble form of the protein do the damage, the plaques just being a precipitation of the soluble form., plaque removal do not correlate with reversal of the condition and plaque presence can be found in people with no notable cognitive decline.
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Nikker, I'm afraid that I have some bad news for you...
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Understanding the mechanics of memory may lead to breakthroughs which could cure diseases like Alzheimer's.
Which isn't to say that there is no danger.
We develop biological and chemical weapons so that we can craft defenses for them, but we don't lie to ourselves that we haven't first created something with its own risks.
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Detonating nuclear bombs in downtown Chicago may lead to breakthroughs which could result in nuclear bomb-proof building design.
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This could possibly cure the disease mankind have been suffering from since forever.... ignorance.
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Re:Putting Tin Foil hat on.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed. We currently devote how many years to creating people with knowledge? What if instead of taking 22, 26, 35 or more years to gain the necessary knowledge and experience to start up in a field you spent 18 years maturing socially and two hours downloading 100 years of knowledge and experience?
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It's usefulness as instant learning is attractive, though you are correct that there is potential for abuse in that. Make everyone learn that Democrats are commies and Republicans are troglodites, etc.
Myself, I just want to learn Kung Fu and fly around with my shades and cloak...
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I said my shades, not his. Mine are green, with purple stripes on the lenses. Got em at Walmart.
SHORT-term (Score:1)
They managed to make (Score:4, Funny)
lawyers remember ethics for a few seconds?
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I was going to suggest testing on politicians, one step up from rats.
Re:They managed to make (Score:5, Funny)
Wow. What happened to make you despise the rats so much?
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lawyers remember ethics for a few seconds?
Call Guinness! That's twice the previous record.
Guinness rules (Score:2)
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No but they got an end user to remember their password
any plans on long-term memory? (Score:5, Interesting)
I might be an anomaly, but after highschool and college, I developed the ability to push things directly to long-term memory, and shortchange the short-term, removing the volatility.
I know I can do that, because the information and even the circumstances happening around me are stored such that I can recall them clearly now, years later. (The first time I did it was durng a cram session in science class concerning the simple machines physics test material in HS. I remember the entire circumstance clearly. Upon learning I could do this, I never had to really study again, just make the concious effort to store the information permanently. The most recent time I used it was last week over the holiday weekend. I visited a friend and took some extra days off. His parents wanted him to find some unusual ingredients for a recipe his dad had found online, and I memorized the missing items: mediteranean couscous, lemon preserves, and picholine olives.)
Let me know when they can deal with long term memories, because there is some stagnant data in my head that needs purging. I don't need to remember the conversation I had with the engineering student on the SW airlines return flight from my california vacation two years ago. That and numberous other things could safely be removed.
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It certainly does sound as if you are an anomaly and a very interesting one at that. I'm sure the nearest university cognitive science department would be quite pleased to make your acquaintance, especially if you are willing to participate in a study of your ability. Seriously, get in touch with someone and tell them about this; it may provide a significant benefit for all of us.
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Mod up! My roommate is psychology (clinical psychology) student and she claims it is extremely unlikely, and she is pretty sure cognitive study researchers would be interested
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I am not sure my local university is properly equipped for that, and don't relish the idea of being poked, prodded, or worse-- made to remember even more tedious information.
If it helps your room-mate, I do not have perfect autobiographical memory; instead, to store the information reliably, I have to comprehend the material I am being exposed to. For example, I have a weakness in mathematics. Showing me a mathematical proof, I will have difficulty storing it. However, a complex process, if I comprehend it
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This statement is contradictory "It is a conscious effort, and not innate, though I do have abnormally high recall for random daily occurances, and could give you a fairly accurate description of my (entire) trip last week for example" It takes effort, then it doesn't? Or you put effort into remembering all those random daily occurrences? You don't, even though I'm sure you'd back peddle and lie that you do. Get your story straight. A story you tell yourself, and others to convince them (if they are convinc
Re:any plans on long-term memory? (Score:4, Interesting)
It takes conscious effort to remember an arbitrary unit of information, such as a complete recipie, vs remembering that I made muffins that day, and that they were delicious.
People with perfect autobiographical memory do the latter. They will associate a date with an activity, and remember it. They will remember making the muffins, what problems may have come up during baking (such as phone ringing, etc), that they were delicious, how many they ate, etc... but will not recall the recipie.
I can recall the recipie, if I make a conscious effort to store it.
This is something people with perfect autobiographical memory cannot do.
I do not habe perfect autobiographical memory, and do not claim to. I have above average autobiographical memory, and also the ability to recall discrete units of information I have consciously taken the effort to store.
Compare: remembering that my friend's dad wanted odd ingredients for something he wanted to cook VS remembering what the ingredients are.
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I use a similar mental trick to increase retention and recall; like the opp, I would say that it takes effort and is not innate, however, like any other process instantiated and existing solely within the mind, it doesn't exactly have an off switch.
Let's say that I asked you to picture a pink elephant with wings and the number 48 tattooed on it's side.
I would say that this is the kind of thing that most people, myself included, would think about for a moment, then in moving on, forget.
Now, I would like you
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Hyperthymesia (Score:3, Informative)
Sounds like you might have a case of Hyperthymesia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymestic [wikipedia.org]
The actress Marilu Henner supposedly has this condition. She claims to remember every day of her life since age 11.
Its rare, but it happens and apparently it can be a exhausting and a burden on the person.
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That's not it. He has to make an effort to record it into long term memory.
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Perfect autobiographical memory sufferers often fail miserably at discrete memory tasks, but excell at semantic and biographical memory tasks.
I do not have perfect autobiographical memory, and do not claim to. I do have superior biographical memory, however. I do not remember the exact conversation on said flight. What I remember is that he was a minority student, possibly italian or mediteranean in origin, as he had tanned skin, loose curly black hair with and oily sheen, brown eyes, a black shirt with whi
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Sounds like there is nothing wrong with you. The details you give here are not any more thorough than most people would remember.
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It was 2 years ago.
Further details of that return flight:
Upon landing at las vegas airport, we were stuck on the runway, as the plane in the stall our flight was scheduled to disembark t was grounded due to a medical emergency, and delayed for a half hour.
I was worried that I would have to rent a hotel room in las vegas on the 4th of july. (The return flight was the night of july 3rd.) We DID board successfully, as it turns out the plane we were to embark on was the very one that had experienced the medical
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Nope... pretty sure you're not special at all.
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My mom can remember details like that that bewilder me. She can remember who she was talking to, why they were there, what they were wearing, what she was thinking, what their family members were doing, what they talked about...and this is stuff that happened 30-40 years ago. This is especially true for events like trips or special occasions.
But she doesn't remember details about how to operate electronics or computers as easily as I do.
Sorry to burst your bubble. You don't sound that out of the ordinary
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I belive you're deluded and have just forgot all the attempts where your long term storage push failed.
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I would be willing to be tested, as long as the test materials weren't bs that would further clutter up my head.
Since my university is primarily outfitted for engineering, computer science, and education degrees I am not convinced it is an appropriate venue. I don't feel like taking a 4 hour drive everyday to get to the nearest one with a respectable medical training curriculum, just to get prodded and asked to do parlor tricks with my brain.
I remember too much, and with sufficient recall that when reminded
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So, something reminds you of something funny, and you remember it, and you laugh about it.
That's called life.
I think you should stop thinking about remembering and stop remembering thinking about things; just accept who and what you are and live your life. You seem to think there's something wrong or unusual about you--what if there's not? Maybe the problem is not your memory--maybe the problem is that you think there's a problem.
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Don't move. Stay where you are. Do not be alarmed. We are going to help you, and you are going to help us. Don't fight it. Just come with us. No you don't really have a choice. Here put on this gown. Those needles? Those are just vaccines. Now relax and we can begin studying you. There we go....*whine of a bone bone saw starting*
Article (Score:1)
David Brin to the white courtesy telephone (Score:2)
So when do we uplift the chimpanzees and dolphins?
--
BMO
Re:David Brin to the white courtesy telephone (Score:5, Funny)
Right after we do conservatives. Start with the hard job, move to the easier ones. ;-)
Jesus Pill (Score:2, Funny)
Mass visions of Jesus to follow.
And paves the way for mind control (Score:1)
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mmmm rats.
And paves the way for torture (Score:2)
Of course what happens to rats after these experiments? Are they sacrificed? Ethnically cleansed?
Voight-Kampff Resistant Rats . . (Score:2)
"Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. More rat than rat is our motto. Ratchael is an experiment, nothing more. We began to recognise in them a strange obsession. After all they are emotionally inexperienced, with only a few years in which to store up the experiences which you and I take for granted. If we gived them a past, we'd create a cushion, a pillow for their emotions and consequently we can control them better." (Tyrell)
"Memories. You're talking about memories." (Deckard)
But (Score:2)
I want a way to remove memories from my brain.
That way, I can see a movie over and over again and still enjoy watching it.
Anyway, I hope advertisers don't get a hold on this invention.
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I want a way to remove memories from my brain. That way, I can see a movie over and over again and still enjoy watching it.
Alzheimer's disease.
What good is watching a movie Mr. Anderson, if you can't remember wh-- wait, what were we talking about? Why is the floor so sticky?
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PTSD treatment? (Score:2)
Rats, politicians (Score:1)
FanFic story as a memory?? (Score:1)
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"Researchers say they've found a way to store artificial short-term memories in isolated brain tissue. 'This is the first time anyone has found a way to store information over seconds about both temporal sequences andstimulus patterns directly in brain tissue,' says the study's lead. 'This paves the way for government to do all sorts of cool things, like tamper with judicial witnesses, implant false memories of political opponents in voters' minds, and directly program children with State-friendly thought patterns."
There, fixed it.
They are coming directly for your children.