Engineered memories in a petri dish
Ars Technica story and paper at Physical Review E.
A team at Tel Aviv University has managed to imprint a persistent memory state lasting days into a set of neurons:
"We show that using local chemical stimulations it is possible to imprint persisting (days) multiple memories (collective modes of neuron firing) in the activity of cultured neural networks. Microdroplets of inhibitory antagonist are injected at a location selected based on real-time analysis of the recorded activity. The neurons at the stimulated locations turn into a focus for initiating synchronized bursting events (the collective modes) each with its own specific spatiotemporal pattern of neuron firing."
A team at Tel Aviv University has managed to imprint a persistent memory state lasting days into a set of neurons:
"We show that using local chemical stimulations it is possible to imprint persisting (days) multiple memories (collective modes of neuron firing) in the activity of cultured neural networks. Microdroplets of inhibitory antagonist are injected at a location selected based on real-time analysis of the recorded activity. The neurons at the stimulated locations turn into a focus for initiating synchronized bursting events (the collective modes) each with its own specific spatiotemporal pattern of neuron firing."
posted by Anand at
12:34 PM
1 Comments:
I hate to be pedantic, but to call this memory is to make a category error. Memory is NOT plasticity, but the ability to recall prior experience (admittedly not the best definition). Experimentally, memory can only be indexed by behavior. While this study may serve as a substrate for memory, it could just as well be a substrate for non-memory related plastic processes such as epilepsy.
Either way it is interesting work.
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Unknown, at 8:46 PM
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