Scientists have found out that our brains can create false memories
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Practically every person knows the feeling when suddenly you remember that you did not turn off the iron, especially when you are far from home. Specialists from the Institute of Massachusetts decided to deal with such signals that the brain sends to 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 to this. The carried out researches of the neuroscientist have shown how the brain creates false memories.
Scientists could not for a long time find the area of the brain, which stores memories, the so-called engrams. In each memory there are several elements - including. Space, time, object. Coding memories occurs as a result of chemical and physical changes in neurons. In the 1940s, it was suggested that the memories are in the temporal region of the brain. Neurosurgeon W. Penfield conducted brain stimulation with electrical discharge to patients who suffered from epilepsy and who were waiting for the operation. Patients said that during the stimulation memories began to appear in my head. Later studies of patients who had amnesia confirmed that the temporal region is responsible for storing information. But all these studies did not actually confirm that the engrams are stored in the temporal part.
A team of specialists decided to find out where the hiding place with memories is hidden. To do this, it was necessary to force a person to experience memories in the temporal region of certain groups of cells. To achieve this, scientists have used a new technology - optogenetics, which can selectively stimulate by light certain cells in the brain.
The experiments were performed on mice implanted with the gene of Channelrhodopsin, which activated neurons after light stimulation. Through the mice, small discharges of current were passed, when forming such memories, both genes were connected. As a result, scientists marked cells with memories. Then the mice were moved to a completely new cage for them. At the beginning the mice behaved calmly, but when the stimulated brain cells in the temporal region began to start with light, the mice were frozen in fear - memories of electrical discharges were returning. But scientists did not stop there and decided to create fake memories in mice.
In a new study, the mice were again placed in yet another cage, where they did not experience any negative emotions. In the brain, memories of this cell were noted by the gene Channelrhodopsin. Next, the mice were already experiencing an electric shock in the new cage, but this time together with the light stimulation to bring back memories. When the mice were transplanted into a cage in which they were never subjected to testing, they behaved extremely uneasily and experienced fear. As a result, false memories were created in mice. As scientists have found out, traces of this kind of memories are stored in the same department of the brain, where real memories also are.
Currently, scientists expect to create more complex memories, for example, about other mice or about food.
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