Researches Implant False Memories into Brains at MIT – real life ‘Inception’

Could we be close to making the world of the film ‘Inception’ a reality? According to reports, researchers at MIT have successfully implanted false memories into the brains of mice.

The memories actually caused the mice to be afraid of an event that never really happened. The news was published in a research paper, ‘Creating a False Memory in the Hippocampus’.

Researchers point out that their experiment shows just how unreliable memories can be. Additionally the research helps to explaining why humans sometimes recall things that never really happen.

In the experiments, the researchers place a mouse in a new environment (place A) and as the mouse explores, new memories are created in the hippocampus. Next the researchers move the mouse to a new location (place B). In this new location, the researchers stimulate the memory of Place A using a process called optogenetics and, at the same time, send electric shocks to the mouse’s feet.

When the mouse is later returned to place A, it freezes in fear providing proof that the mouse’s brain has confused the fear of electric shocks in Place B with its ‘false memory’ of Place A.

The research team reportedly relied on their own discovery, that memories are stored in individual neurons, to implement their experiment.

The team used a virus to genetically modify brain cells of the mice making them sensitive to light. Using this process of Optogenetics, the team was then able to invoke a memory of place A but hitting the corresponding region of the hippocampus with a laser light.

While this research could explain how some people develop false memories, including alien abductions, the researchers hope to use the memory manipulation technology to fix/treat undesirable brain function, such as anxiety and depression.