Memory Chips For Your Brain, Science Fiction?

Sometimes science surpasses science fiction… A recent study carried out by professionals from the University of South Carolina and Wake Forest University have presented to the world the result of the fruit of 10 years of work. Something that could serve as the basis for the treatment of multiple neurodegenerative diseases. This study has been published in the Journal of Neural Engineering and concludes that the implantation of a memory chip for the integration of memories in live brains is possible.

Brain areas involved in memory

The experiment focuses on the key regions for the storage of information and the formation of memories. The role of the hippocampus in memory is beginning to be studied as a result of the HM case. In it, the patient’s symptoms are analyzed, as a consequence of the bilateral destruction of the medial temporal structures, as a consequence of a surgical intervention in an attempt to alleviate the epileptic seizures.

The result of this intervention causes in the patient a serious impairment of anterograde memory and some alteration of retrograde memory in the three years prior to the injury. HM was unable to encode new memories after the operation and could not remember what had happened after the operation, despite being able to retrieve information from previous years.

In this way, the hippocampus , located inside the medial part of the temporal lobe, under the cortical surface, plays an essential role in the formation of new memories, both episodically and autobiographical. In the hippocampus, also called Cornu Ammonis , four areas are differentiated: CA1, CA2, CA3 and CA4. Each of these areas has cellular characteristics and its own connections make them different from each other.

Experiment

In the study, the researchers teach the rats to press a lever to obtain a certain reward. Using integrated electrical waves, the experimental research team, led by Sam A. Deadwyler of the Wake Forest Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, recorded changes in brain activity in rats between the two major internal divisions of the hippocampus, known as the subregions. CA3 and CA1.

Once the stability of the response was achieved, the scientists blocked the normal neural interactions between the two areas using pharmacological agents. The chip then carried out the reverse procedure. That is, it sent the brain waves recorded during behavior learning to the hippocampus. In this way, the rat was able to carry out the behavior, even keeping the portion of its brain anesthetized. This opens a door for the use of memory chips in humans.

Conclusions: experiment and memory chips

Dr. Berger points out that if we are able to decode complex knowledge to translate it into their corresponding brain waves, it would be theoretically possible to implant knowledge in the brain.

In addition, the researchers went on to show that if a prosthetic device and its associated electrodes were implanted in animals with a normal hippocampus, the operation of the device could actually strengthen the memory that is generated internally in the brain and increase the memory capacity of normal rats.

The next steps, according to Berger and Deadwyler , would focus on attempts to duplicate rat results in primates. The goal would be to create prosthetics (memory chips, it is understood) that can help human victims of Alzheimer’s disease recover. Also, affected by stroke or various brain injuries. This would open doors to a new field of scientific research on the cure of diseases and the functional recovery of people with severe brain damage.