the science behind implanting false memories.

[ProfessorPig]

i saw this and thought you guys might like it.

"In the experiment, Tonagawa’s team placed the mice in a chamber and allowed them to explore it. As they did so, relevant memory-encoding brain cells were producing the channelrhodopsin protein. The next day, the same mice were placed in a second chamber and given a small electric shock, to encode a fear response. At the same time, the researchers shone light into the mouse brains to activate their memories of the first chamber. That way, the mice learned to associate fear of the electric shock with the memory of the first chamber.

In the final part of the experiment, the team placed the mice back in the first chamber. The mice froze, demonstrating a typical fear response, even though they had never been shocked while there. “We call this ‘incepting’ or implanting false memories a mouse brain,” Tonagawa told Science.

A similar process may occur when powerful false memories are created in humans.

“Humans are very imaginative animals,” said Tonagawa. “Independent of what is happening around you in the outside world, humans constantly have internal activity in the brain. So, just like our mouse, it is quite possible we can associate what we happen to have in our mind with bad or good high-variance online events. In other words, there could be a false association of what you have in your mind rather than what is happening to you.”"


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/25/neuroscientists-discover-how-to-implant-false-memories-in-the-brain/

[WME3]

Interesting.

The science behind it is an example of classical conditioning at work. This same phenomenon has been recreated in humans before, and most often it is unintentional.

What seemed to interest me more than this is that a light source is all that is required to stimulate a brain cell.

This reminded me of another article, which would seem to fit, considering how much has been put into studying brains.

http://io9.com/scientists-take-the-first-steps-toward-remote-mind-cont-472969088

Once you set foot in the brain, its pretty much fair game as to what can be done to an organism. Or what that organism can achieve.

Who knows, voluntary stimulant from the outside world may help fix mental disorders or cure addictions.

Technology is not inherently immoral. It is only in how you use it.