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“PROFESSOR TIM BLISS (winner of the Brain Prize) predicts that we will soon be able to manipulate memories, suggesting that we understand memory sufficiently today.” https://lnkd.in/dnaUMmN View in LinkedIn

PREDICTING MEMORY FAILURE. “Researchers developed an algorithm that predicted with high accuracy whether a person would remember a given word. By stimulating the brain only when a person read words that were likely to be forgotten, the researchers could boost performance by up to 140%. Penn psychologist Michael Kahana says that the team has recorded from the brains of about 80 people in total and is seeking regulatory approval to use a more precise electrode array.” https://lnkd.in/d6RG5sQ View in LinkedIn

MONKEY TESTS. “Facilitation of memory encoding in primate hippocampus by a neuroprosthesis that promotes task-specific neural firing.” https://lnkd.in/d9AVWD6 View in LinkedIn

SIGNAL ALGORITHM. “Researchers asked 12 people with epilepsy to look at pictures and then recall up to 90 seconds later which ones they had seen. While the participants did this, the researchers recorded the firing patterns in both CA3 and CA1. They then developed an algorithm that could use the activity of the CA1 cells to predict the pattern that was coming from CA3. Compared with the actual patterns, their predictions were accurate about 80% of the time.” http://www.nature.com/news/memory-boosting-devices-tested-in-humans-1.18712 View in LinkedIn

“XENON gas, an anesthetic already used for humans, to modify memory reconsolidation in mice. The gas inhibits NMDA receptor activity. Dosed within an hour after a foot shock, it significantly reduced fear reactions, both to the shock and to its context, compared with controls.” https://lnkd.in/dkBjap4 View in LinkedIn

LASERS FOR MEMORY. “Ramirez co-authored a 2014 study in which he and a team from RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics were able to change bad memories to good in male mice. Using a technique called optogenetics, in which genetically encoded, light-responsive proteins are inserted into cells, the scientists were able to pinpoint where a mouse's negative memory of a shock to the foot was formed, in the neural circuitry that connects the dentate gyrus in the hippocampus to the amygdala. The researchers then manipulated those neurons with lasers. Each time the mice ventured to a certain part of their enclosure, the negative memory was reactivated, and they quickly learned to fear the area.” https://lnkd.in/dkBjap4 View in LinkedIn