my work focuses on finding individual
memories in the brain and actually
turning them on or off we had a series
of projects where we started off by
asking really simply can we go in and
can we just find a memory in the brain
can we isolate a memory in the brain
every memory is realized at the level of
individual brain cells we have to find
the brain cells that were holding on to
one particular memory once we were able
to do that we asked can we actually
modulate that memory could we activate
it could be inactivated again can we
change the contents of it so to do that
we had to go in and we have to
genetically hijack those brain cells and
trick those brain cells to respond to
pulses of light we did that by
artificially installing this light
sensitive switch so that now we know
which brain cells are involved in
holding on to a memory and we also now
have these cells that respond to pulses
of light so we can literally go into the
brain shoot lasers into the brain and
either activate those brain cells and
thereby activate a memory or inactivate
those brain cells and thereby
inactivated memory we’re able to go into
the brain and dial up let’s say the
emotional oof associated with a
particular memory or dial down the
emotional Uma associated with the memory
more recently actually we’ve been able
to go into the brain and isolate
individual positive memories now this is
powerful because we can go and we can
isolate and reactivate positive memories
and one figure out what does this tell
us about the brain right what’s
happening in the brain when we do this
but in my opinion just as importantly we
can go and use these artificially
activated positive memories you can
think of them as sort of weapons now
against certain psychiatric disorders to
the extent that we can model those and
animals so imagine that we can actually
go in and we can generate animal models
of things like anxiety depression PTSD
and so on and actually harness the
brain’s powers and force it to jumpstart
this process of recollection of a
positive memory and force it to suppress
some of these symptoms associated with a
variety of mood disorders my work is
addicting you look at something under
the microscope or your mouse is doing
something and if it’s a true discovery
you’re the only person in the world
that’s looking at that one thing at that
moment you’re at that edge of the known
and the unknown and when you make a tiny
even incremental advance into the
unknown that’s like a drug like that’s
whole other thing
memories in the brain and actually
turning them on or off we had a series
of projects where we started off by
asking really simply can we go in and
can we just find a memory in the brain
can we isolate a memory in the brain
every memory is realized at the level of
individual brain cells we have to find
the brain cells that were holding on to
one particular memory once we were able
to do that we asked can we actually
modulate that memory could we activate
it could be inactivated again can we
change the contents of it so to do that
we had to go in and we have to
genetically hijack those brain cells and
trick those brain cells to respond to
pulses of light we did that by
artificially installing this light
sensitive switch so that now we know
which brain cells are involved in
holding on to a memory and we also now
have these cells that respond to pulses
of light so we can literally go into the
brain shoot lasers into the brain and
either activate those brain cells and
thereby activate a memory or inactivate
those brain cells and thereby
inactivated memory we’re able to go into
the brain and dial up let’s say the
emotional oof associated with a
particular memory or dial down the
emotional Uma associated with the memory
more recently actually we’ve been able
to go into the brain and isolate
individual positive memories now this is
powerful because we can go and we can
isolate and reactivate positive memories
and one figure out what does this tell
us about the brain right what’s
happening in the brain when we do this
but in my opinion just as importantly we
can go and use these artificially
activated positive memories you can
think of them as sort of weapons now
against certain psychiatric disorders to
the extent that we can model those and
animals so imagine that we can actually
go in and we can generate animal models
of things like anxiety depression PTSD
and so on and actually harness the
brain’s powers and force it to jumpstart
this process of recollection of a
positive memory and force it to suppress
some of these symptoms associated with a
variety of mood disorders my work is
addicting you look at something under
the microscope or your mouse is doing
something and if it’s a true discovery
you’re the only person in the world
that’s looking at that one thing at that
moment you’re at that edge of the known
and the unknown and when you make a tiny
even incremental advance into the
unknown that’s like a drug like that’s
whole other thing
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