Researchers Can Now Implant False Memories Into People's Brains

Japanese researchers have developed a trick to implant false visions into people’s brains, altering the way they experience the world and potentially even the way they think. Describing the new technique in the journal Current Biology, the scientists reveal how they were able to achieve this effect without actively engaging with their subjects’ thoughts, instead prompting them to unwittingly warp their own sense of perception.
Speaking to Stat, lead researcher Takeo Watanabe explained that this simple brainwashing exercise could one day lead to new treatments for cognitive disorders such as depression and autism. By provoking people to rewire their own brains, he hopes to help patients strengthen certain healthy connections and erase other less desirable ones.

Scientists identify the brain's fear frequency

Ever wondered why you get chills down your spine each time you sit in the dentist’s chair or strap yourself into a rollercoaster? They're produced by a conditioned fear response, which can be learned following a bad experience and recalled whenever certain stimuli relating to that event present themselves. While this concept is certainly nothing new, scientists have for the first time identified a particular brainwave that appears to regulate this response, potentially opening the door to new treatments for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The brain’s ability to learn and recall conditioned behaviors was famously illustrated by Ivan Pavlov and his slobbery dogs in the 19th century, and numerous subsequent studies have revealed how this phenomenon can be manipulated to elicit fear as well as hunger. Rodents, for instance, can easily be trained to freeze upon hearing a tone that they have come to associate with an aversive experience such as pain.

The effect of cocaine on the brain

Cocaine might give users a buzz, but it could also be making brain cells eat themselves, according to new research. While normally an important survival mechanism for the cell, at high enough doses the drug seems to make this process go into overdrive, causing cells to digest their innards to such an extent that they die.
More than just contributing to our knowledge of how this drug leads to its notable toxic effects, the work could potentially offer scientists a new treatment avenue to explore. Inhibiting this pathway with a different drug was found to protect neurons against cocaine-triggered death, raising the possibility that the same agent or something related may represent a viable therapy for cocaine abuse. The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.