Creating a False Memory in the Hippocampus
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Can You Trust Your Memory?: Being highly imaginative animals, humans constantly recall past experiences. These internally generated stimuli sometimes get associated with concurrent external stimuli, which can lead to the formation of false memories. Ramirez et al. (p. 387 ; see the cover) identified a population of cells in the dentate gyrus of the mouse hippocampus that encoded a particular context and were able to generate a false memory and study its neural and behavioral interactions with true memories. Optogenetic reactivation of memory engram–bearing cells was not only sufficient for the behavioral recall of that memory, but could also serve as a conditioned stimulus for the formation of an associative memory.
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Neuroscientists have demonstrated the technological capability of brain-to-brain communication, including transferring sensory and perceptual experiences and memories directly between animals using invasive techniques, and manipulating and controlling them.
“Neuroscientists have also demonstrated the technological capability of brain-to-brain communication; that is, the ability to transfer sensory and perceptual experiences 26 and memories 11 directly between animals using invasive techniques, as well as to manipulate 31 and control them. 6”
From AI and Neurotechnology (2023) · cites this paper as [31]
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- Authors
- Ramirez, S., Liu, X., Lin, P.-A., Suh, J., Pignatelli, M., Redondo, R. L., Ryan, T. J., & Tonegawa, S.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ramirez, Steve
- Liu, Xu
- Tonegawa, Susumu
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2013-07-26
- Volume
- 341
- Issue
- 6144
- Pages
- 387-391
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W1980006923
- Cited by
- 968
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 68 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 81 · 2021: 77 · 2020: 83 · 2019: 67 · 2018: 99 · 2017: 89 · 2016: 67 · 2015: 62 · 2014: 69 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 38.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- RIKEN
- RIKEN Brain Science Institute
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- false memory, hippocampus, memory engrams, optogenetics, channelrhodopsin-2, dentate gyrus, CA1 neurons, fear conditioning, memory reconsolidation
- MeSH terms
- Channelrhodopsins, Dependovirus, Amygdala, Animals, Association, Conditioning, Psychological, Doxycycline, Fear, Light, Memory, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Transgenic, Neurons, Mental Recall, Genes, fos, Dentate Gyrus, Mice, CA1 Region, Hippocampal, Optogenetics
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