Memory prosthetics
Scientists have planted electronic memory in the brains of ratsJulia Rudy, Membrane based on USC materials:
Restoring Memory, Repairing Damaged BrainsA scheme replacing the rat hippocampus was created and tested on rodents by scientists from the USA.
Tests have shown that animals can be forced to memorize certain actions at will, and also that the chip improves brain abilities.
Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) have been working on creating an artificial hippocampus for years. In the latter work, they were assisted by colleagues from Wake Forest University (WFU).
This time, in their article published in the Journal of Neural Engineering (Berger et al., A cortical neural prosthesis for restoring and enhancing memory), the researchers talked about the electronic replacement of the neural network that forms long-term memories in rats – a scheme that reproduced the work of the rodent brain department.
Two levers (shown in green and red), pressing which the animal received a reward, allowed scientists to record how the hippocampus works during the rodent's training (illustration by USC Viterbi School of Engineering).
In the first part of the experiment, the researchers showed that rats can be taught to press the left or right lever to receive a reward. Scientists implanted electrodes into the animals' brains that recorded the interaction of hippocampal regions, conventionally called CA3 and CA1.
The animal remembers what action brings the expected result, thanks to the interaction of these departments. In the process of learning, the brain transforms short-term memories into long-term memory. However, it is necessary to turn off the hippocampus by medical means, as this connection disappears.
Trained rats have only short-term memory. Further experiments have shown that they are not able to remember new information. "They still knew that they had to press the levers, but they only remembered which one had already been pressed for 5-10 seconds," says Professor Berger.
Then, using a model recorded by electrodes, scientists created an electronic prosthesis of the hippocampus, copying the interaction of CA3 and CA1. The second part of the experiment showed that when the rodents were implanted with the device, long-term memory began to form in their brains again.
Additional research has yielded an even more striking result: the abilities of rats with a normally functioning hippocampus increased when a chip was embedded in their brain.
The author of the work, Professor Theodore Berger, believes that in the future, the technique developed by his team will allow replacing an aged or damaged human hippocampus. But to do this, you first need to create and test a prosthesis of the corresponding part of the brain for a monkey. Berger plans to upgrade the human brain in 15 years. After how many years the plot of the film "Johnny Mnemonic" will become a reality – it is not yet clear (photo PR Newswire/ USC Viterbi School of Engineering).
The professor is sure that bioengineers, not pharmacists, will succeed much more in the treatment of the hippocampus. However, scientists working with real, not electronic parts of the brain, have also succeeded in modeling individual living "circuits" of the hippocampus.
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