Resumen de Memory code cracked
Memories have a unique genetic signature in the brain--a code that has only just been discovered and unlocked. The findings, in mice, suggest we maybe able to read people's memories by examining the patterns in their brains, and even one day alter or repair them to treat psychiatric disorders or memory loss. While investigating how this works, Ami Citri at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his colleagues discovered that particular experiences--be it an electric shock or a hit of cocaine--elicit different changes in gene activity in the brains of mice. These mice were given a variety of positive or negative experiences, such as electric shocks to their feet, a sugar treat, a dose of a chemical that makes them feel ill or cocaine. An hour later, they were euthanized and the team looked at which genes were being expressed in seven areas of the brain that are involved in memory, including the hippocampus and amygdala. Citri was surprised to find that all of the mice given cocaine, for example, showed the same general pattern of gene activity. The patterns were so clear that the team could guess what experience a mouse had been through with over 90 per cent accuracy just by analyzing the levels of activity of different genes in their brains.
