Researchers have been successful in instilling false memories into the brain of mice. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed the technology to implant false memories in the brain cells of mice.
The mice were able to mistakenly associate a kind environment to a prior unpleasant experience from unlike environs.
The scientists implanted in genetically engineered mice with optic fibres to deliver pulses of light to their brain or the technique of opt genetics and the response of mice to the surroundings.
A network of neurons was conditioned by the scientists of RIKEN-MIT Centre for Neural Circuit Genetics in mice to respond to light, causing the mice recollect the unpleasant surroundings.
Scientists say it may lead to a way to know how false memories occur in human beings. Like mice our memories are stored in cells, and when events are recalled we rebuild the parts of these cells like re-assembling small pieces of a puzzle in to a complete picture. Scientists have proved that the human memory is highly unpredictable.
One of the members of the research team said that when mice recalled a false memory, it was fuzzy from the real memory in the way it propelled a fear response in the memory cells of the brain of mice. Mouse`s structure and basic circuitry is very akin to human brain. This will help scientists further discover how similar structures in the human brain work.