Changing memories of mice Zoe Nellen
According to an article in the Wall Street Times, a new method of molecular biology enables that scientist can rewire the circuits of the
brain of mice and manipulate their memory. They
rewrite the memory using lights to control the activity of the brain cells.
How does this work?
They gave a mouse fearful memories to be able to identify, which brain cells are activated, when a memory is "produced".
The "Where" of a memory is "saved" in a brain cell called Hippocampus.
The feelings of a memory are saved in a cell called amygdala.
Both are connected to each other. Scientists wanted to change this connection using a cutting-edge technique , also known as optogentics.
How does this work?
They gave a mouse fearful memories to be able to identify, which brain cells are activated, when a memory is "produced".
The "Where" of a memory is "saved" in a brain cell called Hippocampus.
The feelings of a memory are saved in a cell called amygdala.
Both are connected to each other. Scientists wanted to change this connection using a cutting-edge technique , also known as optogentics.
Mice that
avoided places in their cage before, started to like them, because they had no
bad memories of them anymore. But it is also possible to change pleasurable
memory into fearful.
The
assignment of memories and feelings is similar to humans and scientist hope
that it would be possible to help traumatized people such as using a drug.
It isn’t
practical to fire lasers into human brains in a similar way but it could inspire
other approaches that might be medically useful.
Sources: http://online.wsj.com/articles/scientists-experiment-with-reworking-memory-in-mice-1409158818
I like how you started the blog with the sentence saying where you found the article. Its good that you explained what the article is about, it is also really good to ask a question "How does it work".You answered the question you asked.I think it is really amazing that scientists can now rewrite memories, but they are still on the beginning, as this project is far from human testing.Its good that you explained if the experiment worked or not, and as we can see it did work on the mice.
ReplyDeleteI like that you explained what they did to the mice in order to change the memory. Also, that you explained what a memory is and the difference between the memory and the feelings associated with a memory. It's also good that you included where you got the article from. I like how you explained how this affects our world, and how these techniques can be helpful to those who were traumatized and need medical help. Do you think there are any downsides of using this on humans? If so, what? What could go wrong?
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ReplyDeleteThank you, Olivia for that question...
ReplyDeleteWell I think using this technique on humans would help them on one side but on the other side it would have an affect on their personality. A part of your experience would be deleted and you won't even notice it. So if this would be tested on me, i would find this a little bit creepy...
I really like the story you chose. I also like how you used your own, simple words to describe it. Maybe next time add a little bit more about how the story could affect you and the rest of the world. Very nice work.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great story and you discuss it very well in very few words. I think it would be interesting if you could say a little more about the connection between the hippocampus and amygdala so that the reader could have a better understanding of how the technique works. Well done!
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