MouseCeption: Is It Real?

INCEPTION

Ok, now that I've gotten your attention let's talk about science. Not too long ago, MIT scientists proved that the concept behind the 2010 hit movie Inception is farther away from fiction than you may think. Yes, I know what you're thinking: leave it to MIT to prove the impossible. In the movie Inception, several scientists and theorists have the ability to implant memories in a selected subject. The hope of implanting these memories is that the subject will be subconsciously coerced into acting a certain way or believing something they didn't believe before. MIT researchers were able to prove their hypothesis true by working on mice.

A living being's memory is stored in a special brain cell more commonly called a neuron. Memory itself isn't stored in just one brain cell, however. The process of "remembering" something can be broken down into three steps. First, hundreds or thousands of neurons group together in the frontal lobe of the brain to form a whole memory. Although this "grouping" happens in most cases, new brain studies have found that single cells can also allow you to remember past events.

These individual cells can hold memories for "up to a minute, perhaps longer." Second, the brain fires an electrochemical pulse to trigger the release of "messengers" called neurotransmitters. Lastly, the brain, specifically the hippocampus, interprets the connection between the individual neurons to then form a coherent memory. However, it's not as simple as it sounds. Although you may remember the first time you swam in a pool as one, un-interrupted memory, it's actually the culmination of several different forms of memory weaved together. The memory of how to swim comes from one group of brain cells; the memory of how to go underwater and back up again is another set; and the memory necessary to know that you can't stay underwater too long is yet another "grouping" of neurons.

Now that we've learned a little bit more about memory, let's get back to the topic at hand: Inception. In order to influence memory patterns or introduce a new memory, it is necessary to isolate the neurons that contain such memory. MIT researchers first "tagged" and isolated brain cells associated with recalling memories by making them "fire with light" with the proper stimulus. The technique they used is called optogenetics, where scientists can use light to stimulate individual brain cells. The process is made easier as the optical fiber that leads into the mouse's hippocampus, the area in the brain where these memories are formed, is set alight to differentiate between the individual neurons.

After isolating these brain cells, the scientists were able to artificially manipulate the "grouping" process of neurons, associating different memories with others.

In essence, they implant false memories into mice by forcing the creation of these ties between neurons. The results came out positive when the researchers found that the mice reacted to different stimuli as if they had seen them before-or so they thought.

There are more implications to this scientific milestone than the sheer magnificence of proving "Inception" to be possible. Not only does it open up the way for further study of the brain, but there are also significant medical implications. The same researchers who conducted the experiment with mice hypothesize that this type of research could help treat a person's emotional problems, forgetfulness, and insomnia. Specifically citing post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental disease caused by the intrusion of unwanted, and often violent, thoughts, they say these types of memories could be permanently eliminated. The benefits of such a discovery don't end there, however. Manipulation of neurons designed to hold certain memories can allow subjects to remember forgotten information. This new technique functions as a figurative key to the treasure chest of the human brain.

For your personal enjoyment, here is an illustration of what might have happened after these mice suddenly “remembered” about a past event:

http://postimg.org/image/fnnsgcict/

References:

1. BBC News Health, "Memory loss 'should not be ignored.'" 23 August 2010.

2. PBS. Nova, "How Memory Works." 25 August 2009.

3. H. L. Roediger, Y. Dudai, "Science of Memory: Concepts." Oxford Scholarship (2009).

4. Washington Post, "MIT scientists implant memory in mouse brain." 29 July 2013.

5. Washington Post, "MIT scientists implant a false memory into a mouse's brain." 25 July 2013.

Image Credit: LadyofHats (Wikipedia), Looie496 (Wikipedia)