• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, August 1, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Bioengineering

Coming soon: A brain implant to restore memory

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 2, 2014
in Bioengineering, EDITOR'S CHOICE
Reading Time: 3 mins read
1
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

In the next few months, highly secretive US military researchers say they will unveil new advances toward developing a brain implant that could one day restore a wounded soldier’s memory.

Coming soon- A brain implant to restore memory

The implantable BrainGate neural interface can detect and record brain signals, allowing persons who have lost the use of arms and legs to have point-and-click control of a computer. Credit: Matthew McKee/BrainGate Collaboration

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is forging ahead with a four-year plan to build a sophisticated memory stimulator, as part of President Barack Obama’s $100 million initiative to better understand the human brain.

The science has never been done before, and raises ethical questions about whether the human mind should be manipulated in the name of staving off war injuries or managing the aging brain.
Some say those who could benefit include the five million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and the nearly 300,000 US military men and women who have sustained traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“If you have been injured in the line of duty and you can’t remember your family, we want to be able to restore those kinds of functions,” DARPA program manager Justin Sanchez said this week at a conference in the US capital convened by the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas.

“We think that we can develop neuroprosthetic devices that can directly interface with the hippocampus, and can restore the first type of memories we are looking at, the declarative memories,” he said.
Declarative memories are recollections of people, events, facts and figures, and no research has ever shown they can be put back once they are lost.

Early days

What researchers have been able to do so far is help reduce tremors in people with Parkinson’s disease, cut back on seizures among epileptics and even boost memory in some Alzheimer’s patients through a process called deep brain stimulation.

Those devices were inspired by cardiac pacemakers, and pulse electricity into the brain much like a steady drum beat, but they don’t work for everyone.

Experts say a much more nuanced approach is needed when it comes to restoring memory.
“Memory is patterns and connections,” explained Robert Hampson, an associate professor at Wake Forest University.

“For us to come up with a memory prosthetic, we would actually have to have something that delivers specific patterns,” said Hampson, adding that he could not comment specifically on DARPA’s plans.

Hampson’s research on rodents and monkeys has shown that neurons in the hippocampus—the part of the brain that processes memory—fire differently when they see red or blue, or a picture of a face versus a type of food.

Equipped with this knowledge, Hampson and colleagues have been able to extend the animals’ short-term, working memory using brain prosthetics to stimulate the hippocampus.

They could coax a drugged monkey into performing closer to normal at a memory task, and confuse it by manipulating the signal so that it would choose the opposite image of what it remembered.
According to Hampson, to restore a human’s specific memory, scientists would have to know the precise pattern for that memory.

Instead, scientists in the field think they could improve a person’s memory by simply helping the brain work more like it used to before the injury.

“The idea is to restore a function back to normal or near normal of the memory processing areas of the brain so that the person can access their formed memories, and so that they can form new memories as needed,” Hampson said.

Ethical concerns

It’s easy to see how manipulating memories in people could open up an ethical minefield, said Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center.

“When you fool around with the brain you are fooling around with personal identity,” said Caplan, who advises DARPA on matters of synthetic biology but not neuroscience.

“The cost of altering the mind is you risk losing sense of self, and that is a new kind of risk we never faced.”

When it comes to soldiers, the potential for erasing memories or inserting new ones could interfere with combat techniques, make warriors more violent and less conscientious, or even thwart investigations into war crimes, he said.

“If I could take a pill or put a helmet on and have some memories wiped out, maybe I don’t have to live with the consequences of what I do,” Caplan said.

DARPA’s website says that because its “programs push the leading edge of science,” the agency “periodically convenes scholars with expertise in these issues to discuss relevant ethical, legal, and social issues.”

Just who might be first in line for the experiments is another of the many unknowns.

Sanchez said the path forward will be formally announced in the next few months.

“We have got some of the most talented scientists in our country that will be working on this project. So stay tuned. Lots of exciting things will be coming in the very near future.”

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by AFP, Kerry Sheridan.

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Why is the first Turkish bioengineering promotion website, Biyomuhendislik.com, so important?

February 4, 2023
blank

Robo-fish

September 19, 2016

Mice born from ‘tricked’ eggs

September 17, 2016

UCLA researchers use stem cells to grow 3-D lung-in-a-dish

September 16, 2016
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Study Reveals Beta-HPV Directly Causes Skin Cancer in Immunocompromised Individuals

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9
  • Engineered Cellular Communication Enhances CAR-T Therapy Effectiveness Against Glioblastoma

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

CCL2-CCR2 Axis Triggers ALS Neuromuscular Denervation

Supporting Me, Limiting You: Unraveling the Complex Interactions Within Intestinal Microbiota

Saliva Testing Uncovers Early Indicators of Diabetes and Obesity

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.