Scientists Create First Memory Expansion for Brain

[jimmy olsen]

The Singularity is upon us!

http://gizmodo.com/5813821/scientists-create-first-memory-expansion-for-brain

Scientists Create First Memory Expansion for Brain

Jesus Diaz — Imagine you can insert a memory card in your brain and go all Keanu Wow, I know Jiu-Jitsu! Reeves. It's actually not that far away: Scientists have created a chip that allows rats to instantly know things. It's amazing.

After studying the chemical interactions that allow short-term learning and memorization in rats, a group of scientists lead by Dr. Theodore Berger—from the University of South California's Viterbi School of Engineering—have built a prosthetic chip that uses electrodes to enhance and expand their memory abilities. The chip is capable of storing neural signals, basically functioning as an electronic memory, allowing rats to learn more and keep it in the devices.

Dr. Berger's description is almost frightening:

    "Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off, and the rats forget [...] These integrated experimental modeling studies show for the first time that with sufficient information about the neural coding of memories, a neural prosthesis capable of real-time identification and manipulation of the encoding process can restore and even enhance cognitive mnemonic processes.

The team's experiments—which have been in a paper called "A Cortical Neural Prosthesis for Restoring and Enhancing Memory"—could lead to the development of devices that may help people affected by Alzheimer's disease, stroke or other brain injuries. In fact, they are already working on the next step: Reproduce the same result in monkeys.

As someone who has had family affected by Alzheimer and other diseases, I really hope they succeed. As someone who would like to have the entire IMDB in his brain, I really hope they succeed too.

[Slargos]

I wonder how long it will take this technology to mature to the point where it will be used for population control.

Memories of how you murdered that whore would be pretty compromising for a politician.

[Monoriu]

I'm not sure.  I can imagine adding simple facts to a person's memory.  But memory also functions as a web, a piece of a picture.  If you add something that is obviously inconsistent with the rest, I'm not sure if the brain will simply accept it. 

[Tamas]

I'm not sure.  I can imagine adding simple facts to a person's memory.  But memory also functions as a web, a piece of a picture.  If you add something that is obviously inconsistent with the rest, I'm not sure if the brain will simply accept it.

Yes. This is quite exciting, but so far it's "just" a memory extension, they can't actually control what will be stored there.

[Razgovory]

I don't think what they are describing is memories from one rat being transferred to another.  More like electrodes stimulating the brain of a rat that knows something and causing it to forget and then stimulating it in another way causing it to remember.  They seem to suggest it may be able to help the learning process.  Or at least the memorization process.

[Tamas]

I don't think what they are describing is memories from one rat being transferred to another.  More like electrodes stimulating the brain of a rat that knows something and causing it to forget and then stimulating it in another way causing it to remember.  They seem to suggest it may be able to help the learning process.  Or at least the memorization process.

What  they suggest is that this could be a replacement storage solution for those with a failing storage system. Of course, they would still need to figure out how to make the brain transfer already memorized stuff from it's primary storage to the extension.

[derspiess]

I don't think what they are describing is memories from one rat being transferred to another.  More like electrodes stimulating the brain of a rat that knows something and causing it to forget and then stimulating it in another way causing it to remember.  They seem to suggest it may be able to help the learning process.  Or at least the memorization process.

What  they suggest is that this could be a replacement storage solution for those with a failing storage system. Of course, they would still need to figure out how to make the brain transfer already memorized stuff from it's primary storage to the extension.

Always back up your data.

[Faeelin]

Unsurprisingly, the actual article, not being ghostwritten by Tim, is far less dramatic.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/usc-restoring-memory-repairing-damaged-brains-124051534.html

[Razgovory]

That story was more useful.  The first one threw me off due to the opening sentence which really clouded what experiments actually did.