Scientists were able to introduce false memories into the brain of mice

Do you think that the ability to get into the brain and implant other people's memories in it can only be found in science fiction, like the Nolanovsky "Beginnings"? Until recently, this was all until the scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found and then successfully implanted false memories into the brains of several laboratory mice. At the same time, the mice began to perceive these memories as if they were really real.

“It doesn't matter if these memories are false or true, the memory process always works on the same principle,” says Susumu Tonegawa, professor of neurology and head of this study.

A further experiment showed that penetration into someone else’s mind is not just a cool storyline for some science fiction film or book. Now is not.

The experiment began with the fact that several rodents were placed in conditions with which they were not familiar, and allowed them to explore them. Meanwhile, through genetic engineering, scientists have labeled cells that are responsible for the emergence of new memories by channelrodopsin, a protein that illuminates neurons when exposed to special light.

Scientists from MIT isolated mouse hippocampal cells (marked in red), where memories are stored

Then the mice were placed in another chamber, where they experienced a slight shock. At the moment when the mice were shocked, scientists, using light, found those memory cells that contained information about the first camera and “turned on” them. In other words, while in a state of shock in chamber B, the mice began to use the memories of being in chamber A.

Three days later, when the mice were placed back into the first chamber, the rodents showed signs of fear, although, as mentioned above, there were no irritating factors in it. This confirmed that the mice received false memories of what had never happened to them in chamber A.

“This study showed, in our opinion, the first case of successful implementation or, so to speak, implantation of false memory into the brain of a mouse,” the scientists say.

Further experiments, according to scientists, should better reveal an understanding of the issue of how false memories form in the human brain.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/research-development/uchenye-smogli-vnedrit-lozhnye-vospominaniya-v-mozg-myshej.html.