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Scientists have discovered that our brains can create fake memories
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Almost everyone is familiar with the feeling when you suddenly remember that you left the iron on, especially when you are far from home. Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decided to understand such signals that the brain sends us. They came to the conclusion that the brain is capable of creating false memories. Such memories are widespread and there is even documentary evidence of this. The neurobiologist's research showed how the brain creates false memories.
For a long time, scientists were unable to find the area of the brain that stores memories, the so-called engrams. Each memory includes several elements, including space, time, and an object. Memories are encoded as a result of chemical and physical changes in neurons. In the 1940s, it was suggested that memories were stored in the temporal lobe of the brain. Neurosurgeon W. Penfield performed electrical stimulation of the brain on patients with epilepsy who were awaiting surgery. The patients reported that memories began to appear in their heads during the stimulation. Later studies of patients with amnesia confirmed that the temporal lobe is responsible for storing information. However, all these studies did not actually confirm that engrams are stored in the temporal lobe.
A group of specialists decided to find out where the cache of memories was hidden. To do this, it was necessary to force a person to experience memories by activating certain groups of cells in the temporal region. To achieve this, scientists used a new technology - optogenetics, which can selectively stimulate certain cells in the brain using light.
The experiments were conducted on mice that had been implanted with the Channelrhodopsin gene, which activated neurons after light stimulation. Small electric shocks were passed through the mice, and both genes were switched on when such memories were formed. As a result, the scientists marked the cells with memories. Then the mice were moved to a completely new cell for them. At first, the mice behaved calmly, but when the marked brain cells in the temporal region were stimulated with light, the mice froze in fear - the memories of the electric shocks returned. But the scientists did not stop there and decided to create false memories in the mice.
In the new study, mice were again placed in another cage where they experienced absolutely no negative emotions. The Channelrhodopsin gene was noted in the brain as memories of this cage. The mice were then tested with electric current in the new cage, but this time together with light stimulation to bring back the memories. When the mice were transferred to a cage in which they had never been tested, they behaved extremely restlessly and experienced fear. As a result, the mice created false memories. As scientists have found out, traces of such memories are stored in the same part of the brain where real memories are.
Scientists are now considering creating more complex memories, for example, about other mice or about food.
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