Scientists create memory extension for the human brain
If you thought Matrix was unreal, think again. Remember when Neo learned Jiu-Jitsu in seconds? Well it seems that it's not that far from possible. Men of science have discovered a chip that allows lab rats to instantly acquire new information. Applying an electronic scheme that duplicates the neuronic signals linked with memory, they coped to duplicate the brain function in rats affiliated with long-term learned behavior, even when the rats had been narcotized to forget. "Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off, and the rats forget," said Theodore Berger of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Department of Biomedical Engineering. In a striking presentation, the experimenters froze the normal neural interactions between the two fields using pharmacological factors. The antecedently trained rats were no longer able to exhibit the long-term learned demeanor. "The rats still showed that they knew 'when you press left first, then press right next time, and vice-versa,'" Berger said. "And they still knew in general to press levers for water, but they could only remember whether they had pressed left or right for 5-10 seconds." This discovery could lead to devices that could help people affected with Alzheimer's disease, stroke or brain injuries. The next logical step for the research team is to reproduce the same results in monkeys. |