Scientists Plant False Short-Term Memories Directly In Rodent Brains
Contemplative Mouse What was I just about to do? I can't remember... Flickr user audrey_selResearch paves the way for identifying the brain circuitry involved in making memories For the first time, scientists have implanted false memories directly into pieces of cut-out rodent brain tissue, storing different types of short-term memory and proving the brain cells can store information about specific contexts. The memories lasted 10 seconds inside in vitro brain tissue, meaning brain tissue stored in a test tube was able to remember - albeit very briefly. Neuroscientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine took slices of rodent brain and stimulated neural pathways in the hippocampus to introduce patterns of activity. The neural circuits maintained the memory of this simulated input for more than 10 seconds, the researchers say. They could tell because the brain cells were behaving differently, and in a way that called to mind monkey...