Scientists Use Precise Flashes of Light to Implant False

Memories in Fly Brains

Neuroscientists have already spent the better part of
a decade manipulating animal minds by using light signals to
trigger genetically encoded switches. But a new study has now
directly reprogrammed flies to fear and avoid certain smells,
and all without the usual Pavlovian shock treatments.

The technique supposedly permits "writing directly to
memory," and allowed one scientist to enthuse about being
able to "seize control of the relevant brain circuits" for
producing all sorts of mental states and behavior.
Researchers have discovered 12 specific brain cells that they
can stimulate to implant the false memories of events that
never occurred -- except in the mind, of course.

This represents just one of the latest steps in the
relatively new field of optogenetics, where scientists encode
genetic switches inside certain cells and trigger the
switches using tailored flashes of light. The genetic
switches are made from eye cells that can translate light
into the electrical signals used for communication by neurons.

Plenty of past research has manipulated the minds of animals
and humans alike by using more blunt methods such as
electrodes inserted into the brain. But optogenetics has
taken mind control to a new level by permitting researchers
to target very specific types of brain cells by merely
flashing specific light signals.

The team from the University of Virginia and Oxford
University in the UK even hints that such work could
eventually go beyond flies. Their technique certainly makes
the brainwashing of The Manchurian Candidate look rather
coarse by comparison -- if that drama were enacted by tiny
insects.