Watching the Creation of Memories from Inside the Brain

We all know the brain is the centre of human consciousness.  The brain also controls all of our subconscious thoughts, as well as it acts as the processor for all of the body’s functions.  Memories, too, also are formed and recorded in the brain.  For years scientists have been mystified about how the brain is able to create and store memories.  We knew that the brain consists of a complex neural network and that any change that may occur to the brain, like that of the imprint of a memory, must conform to the rules of physic and therefore either be done by the addition or adaptation of matter or through a combination with complex networks of energy.  Of course, all of this occurs at a molecular level stored deep within the tissues of the brain.  Outside of these fundamentals, however, our understanding has been minimal; until recently.

In an unprecedented event, neuroscientists have observed memory forming molecules travel around the brain of a living animal.  This observation has revealed how nerve cells make memories.  Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiba University developed a mouse model in which they fluorescently tagged all molecules of messenger Ribonucleic acid (RNA) that code for specific proteins involved in cell structure and integrity.  These special proteins are considered to be abundant in brain neurons and understood to be key components to making memories.  They are also involved in encoding our Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and replicating it.  In order to observe the memories being formed, researchers stimulated neurons in the part of the brain of the mouse where they believe that memories are made and stored.  Then they watched the florescent coded molecules in the RNA proteins form and travel in the neural networks of the brain.  Scientists were astounded and learned the process was complex and artistic.  Scientists describe the process as novel and never before witnessed by the human eye.  We can only fathom where this breakthrough may take humanity next.

Perhaps following this breakthrough neuroscientists will be able to better understand ways for those who have suffered from a brain injury to regain their lost memories.  Perhaps there may be a way for those who suffer short-term or long-term memory impairments to seek forms of treatment, or perhaps receive supplements of the protein essential to forming memories, in order to overcome the impairments that they face.  Conversely, scientists may also be able to learn how to block certain memories, such as memories suffered by a person who has endured a traumatic event.  Perhaps a person could erase memories of abuse.  Ultimately, given the mysteries and complexities of the human brain, this breakthrough is most likely just the tip of the iceberg.