Memories Are Shown to Reside in Just a Small Number of Brain Cells

[MindMover]

Source: The Atlantic

Researchers at RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics, with help from Stanford's optogenetics guru Karl Deisseroth, have shown that individual memories reside in a very small number of brain cells. Activating just a few cells responsible for holding onto specific memories can bring back rather complex recollections, a finding that may help lead to interventional treatments for conditions like post traumatic stress disorder.

The researchers performed their experiments on mice who were conditioned to fear a certain environment they found themselves in. After identifying where in the brain that fear resided, they were able to use light, thanks to optogenetics, to activate small groups of cells and bring back the fear even though the environment was not fear-inducing.

Some details from MIT's announcement:

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/04/memories-are-shown-to-reside-in-just-a-small-number-of-brain-cells/255086/

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I have the fewest of these cells......

[Kingofalldems]

1. Maybe they can erase my childhood.

[yardwork]

2. I'm sorry.

[Kingofalldems]

16. Thanks.

[raccoon]

14. I'm sorry too. Wish they could find a way to delete the memories you don't want. nt

[Kingofalldems]

17. Thank you. Me too.

[freshwest]

3. 'I have the fewest of these cells...' Nah, it's a blessing. I've seen too much evil shit in my life.

Remember the old United Negro College Fund ad?

'A mind is a terrible thing to waste.'

Sometimes a mind is a terrible thing to have.

EFT is being used for some soldiers with PTSD.

[izquierdista]

4. Not to be outdone...

The Vatican has announced that the Center for Prayer Therapy has shown that saying just a few prayers can absolve the memory of rather complex sins, a finding that may help lead to interventional prayers for conditions like post traumatic stress disorder.

The research priests developed their new prayers from revelations given them by the Holy Father and in consultation with Church dogma. After identifying the specific locus of fear in the soul, they were able to use imprecatory prayer to activate venial sins and bring back the fear, even though absolution had been granted.

Some details from the Vatican's announcement:

[MindMover]

6. I love anything to do with Carlin....have all his material...

and have written many jokes from it.......

[DCBob]

5. No wonder I am so forgetful.

[sakabatou]

7. I wish mine weren't damaged.

My short-term is damaged.

[valerief]

8. Isn't that how propaganda works? nt

[Rhiannon12866]

9. K&R! Fascinating article!

And I seem to remember everything, don't know if it's a curse or a blessing...

[nolabels]

12. It's neither, but more just another sharp knife in the tool cabinet

A very sharp one to be sure but it's more on how you use it than what it can do with it.
My thinking is that a persons intent and living in reality are just as important

As a background on this observation, I have been a mechanic for 34 yrs and many things things look like some kind of tool to me

[webDude]

10. ? Could be developed into a new way to torture?

[saras]

11. The article doesn't really justify Liu's claim, but this is nothing unusual

It's not at all clear that all of this processing is direct storage and not pointers to storage elsewhere (or something more complex - my understanding is that memories of events may be stored as separate parts and not as "events&quot . The experiment may offer more detail, but the way the article reads, Liu is just going farther than his data justifies, possibly slitting his own throat with Occam's Razor.

"Showing that the reactivation of those nerve cells that were active during learning can reproduce the learned behavior is surely a milestone."
Well, no. It's actually quite old knowledge.

Is there a limit to how much a single cell can hold? Can we trade up from 20mb to terabyte cells? Or would we need a whole new OS?

[sofa king]

13. I think you're on to something there.

My computer has a comparatively small File Allocation Table that is in near-constant use, which lights up every time my computer's "memories" are accessed, and yet it is comparatively small and contains little data other than the location on the disk of all the other files.

But the FAT isn't the main memory bank of the computer, it does not store all of the computer's information, it only stores that information's location. I would not be surprised to learn that our location-based brains work along similar lines.

[Javaman]

15. In a recent test, it was found that republicans possessed the fewest of these cells.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

19. approx. 30% of the country?

must be the dioxins and Radon in Republican households?

[bemildred]

18. It's the connections that matter, and they change. nt