EUROPE: Lost memories may only be hiding in the brain, waiting to be found again. Now researchers have shown it is possible to find them, at least in mice.
Scientists have long debated whether amnesia is a problem of storage or retrieval.
Some say it is caused by damage to specific brain cells, meaning a memory cannot be stored.
Others say recall is prevented because access to that memory is somehow blocked.
This new research, published in the journal Science, suggests retrograde amnesia – where memories are lost following brain trauma, stress or diseases such as Alzheimer’s – may be retrieved by activating brain cells with light.
Researchers at MIT used a technology known as optogenetics. They picked out specific brain cells and introduced a special protein into them by way of an engineered virus.
Once the protein was present, the cell was sensitive to blue light and could be turned on and off at will by the researchers. They found the mice exhibited all the signs of recalling the memory in full.
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