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Scientists Figure Out How to Retrieve "Lost" Memories

posted by martyb on Friday May 29 2015, @07:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the where-did-I-put-my-car-keys dept.

AnonTechie writes:

The latest research shows memories "lost" to amnesia aren't gone forever; they're just not accessible

Mice certainly aren't men, but they can teach us a lot about memories. And in the latest experiments, mice are helping to resolve a long-simmering debate about what happens to "lost" memories. Are they wiped out permanently, or are they still there, but just somehow out of reach?

Researchers in the lab of Susumu Tonegawa at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT conducted a series of studies using the latest light-based brain tracking techniques to show that memories in certain forms of amnesia aren't erased, but remain intact and potentially retrievable. Their findings, published Thursday in the journal Science , are based on experiments in mice, but they could have real implications for humans, too.

http://time.com/3899789/lost-memories-retrieved/

[Original Submission - Ed.]

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday May 29 2015, @09:25PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday May 29 2015, @09:25PM (#189850)

    This doesn't say anything about putting in false memories. And there's an obvious use that would probably be on the side of justice - witnesses and victims: "Where did Father O'Malley touch you?" or something similar.

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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday May 29 2015, @10:54PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Friday May 29 2015, @10:54PM (#189880) Journal

    This doesn't say anything about putting in false memories. And there's an obvious use that would probably be on the side of justice - witnesses and victims: "Where did Father O'Malley Congressman Hastert touch you?" or something similar.

    FTFY. Oh, wait, you said false memories. But this does raise interesting possibilities. Instead of "Pre-crime", we could have Pre-blackmail! "Pay up, or I will implant memories of the terrible crime that you might have already committed." I think we have finally found the Profit! line from all those lame internet business plans!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @03:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @03:44PM (#190125)

    This doesn't say anything about putting in false memories.

    Plus we already know how to implant false [wikipedia.org] memories.