Brain scans for research
When a person dies, they leave behind all their personal possessions, but what happens to the experiences they have gained throughout their lives? Can science recover memories from the brains of dead people?
The ability to recall some parts of memories is possible, but technically very difficult, according to Live Sciencequoted neuroscientist Don Arnold of the University of Southern California (USA).
With today’s technology, memory retrieval probably works as follows. First, identify the group of neurons in the brain that encode a particular memory and learn how they connect. Next, activate this group of neurons to create a neural network, a type of machine learning algorithm that mimics the way the brain operates.
Expert Arnold said memories are encoded in each group of cells. Short-term and long-term memories are stored in the hippocampus. Other parts of the brain store different aspects of a memory, such as emotions and sensory details, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Groups of neurons associated with a particular memory leave a physical mark in the brain called an “engram”.
Neuroscientists have identified “engrams” in the hippocampus of the mouse brain. For example, in the report published in the journal NatureIn 2012, researchers discovered specific brain cells linked to memories from fearful experiences.
If scientists had a full model of the human brain, they could theoretically determine the location of the memory they want to retrieve, Arnold said.
In the moment of death, what does the human brain think about?
However, human memories can be complex, especially long-term memories that may be tied to places, relationships or skills, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Retrieving memories from the dead is therefore even more complicated because individual parts of the memory are dispersed throughout the brain. For example, sensory details may also be stored in the parietal lobe and sensory cortex.
In addition, over time there is evidence that memories are transferred to different parts during the process of being consolidated within the brain.
Expert Charan Ranganath, director of the Memory and Flexibility program at the University of California at Davis, said that up to this point, at least science knows that memories harvested during a person’s life are lost along with them. that person.
