The Memory Code
The memory is something that has interested scientists for many years. Why do some people remember things better than others, and some have better long term or short term memories? The answer is a difficult one to find, but scientists believed they could discover the code of memory that could allow the design of smarter computers, robots, and even find new ways to peer into the human mind! They already knew that memory was greatly affected by a region of the brain called the hippocampus, but what they didn't know was how the activation of nerve cells in the brain represents memory. They wondered if there was a way to describe mathematically or pshysiologically what memory is.Scientists began there studies on mice, considering the size of their brain would facilitate the process, as well as many mice could be studied at once. They put each mouse through episodic events that they believed would leave a lasting memory on the mice. After the mice were tested they discovered that inside the brain, four "bubbles" appeared which all represented the four episodic events they went through. This allowed the scientists to see a distinct pattern of ativity in the brain corresponding with the events. They saw the activity begin resting in the bubble and then shoot out and return back to the bubble. This raised the interesting fact that the memory was continuing to play repeatedly and spontaneously in the mouse's head.Secondly, the brain encodes these different events based on cliques. Cliques are groups of nuerons that respond similarly to a select event and thus operate collectively as a robust coding unit. Each event will be coded differently based on how the regions of the brain view the event. Whether it is tragic, disturbing, or simply something that the brain wants to warn itself not to do again.All this information helped the scientists to determine a few different things. First, that nueral cliques serve as the functional coding units that give rise to memories. The amount of nuerons present may also affect how well something is remembered. Scientists also learned through these tests how to pass information from a brain to a computer as well as comparing memory patterns from brain to brain. Using Matrix inversion the scientists were able to translate the activities of the brain into a binary code. This will help with studying cognition and making it easier to design a more seamless for of communication between the brain and a machine.With these new discoveries scientists are beginning to wonder if in the future we will have the possibility to download our brains to computers considering we can translate the activities into simple numbers. Maybe someday we will be able to travel to far off places in the world and live forever in the network!
MY RESPONSE...
Personally I find this somewhat confusing but interesting at the same time. I guess that's why I'm not a scientist and they are. But the fact that we could transport the activities of our mind to a computer is crazy and kind of scary. But it would be cool to be able to travel this way. But what interests me the most is I wonder if they would be able to go into someones mind with a computer and possibly erase memories or even make memories that they never had. Possibly a way to remove tragic events from someones life or help someone with a mental disorder. Oh sooky sooky...
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3 Comments:
This could be really helpful when it comes to psychiatric help. This could be the breakthrough needed to discover repressed memories that cause problems later in a persons life. This could also help with people who have suffered amnesia. It could help them remember their forgotten past.
Wow! This information is really interesting, I always love reading about the brain and how it works. Its amazing that scientists might be able to "download" our thoughts, memories, and other brain activities onto a computer as if they are photos being downloaded from a camera or something. It would be really cool to be able to have all of your brain's content on a computer because that is like the most personalized and unique computer program you could ever create!
Would simply erasing a memory really help sick people? What if they found out what had been done? On the other hand, the part about "downloading" our thoughts could be quite helpful. Maybe we could write term papers much faster!
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