I'm not sure if this qualifies as "observing light," but there's an interesting article in today's (August 31st, 2014) Naples Daily News (NDN) about using light to change memory - i.e, to make a good memory a negative one, or vise versa. "The findings in the journal Nature," says NDN, "show that memories can potentially be modified without drugs or extra training - simply, if that's the word, by breaking the memory into its components in the brain and rewiring the faulty connection."
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) exposed two separate groups of mice to either a positive experience (spending time with female mice), or a negative experience (light electrical shocks to the feet). After exposure to these good and and bad experiences, researchers would expose the mice to a bright blue light. The mice who received the electrical shocks ran and cowered from the light, apparently fleeing memories triggered by the blue hue. Conversely, the male mice exposed to the female population (a good memory) basked in the light, again seemingly reminded of their experience by the strange-colored light.
Here's where it gets cool: now that our mice have an association with blue light and either a positive or negative memory, can we switch or reverse their reaction to the blue light? The answer seems to be "yes." Using the mice exposed to the females, researchers now exposed the mice to electrical shocks and blue light simultaneously. The result was somewhat expected, and very-thought provoking: the mice started to associate the blue light with their new, negative experiences, despite being exposed to the light for roughly the same amount of time in both positive and negative situations. The researchers could then reverse the memory a third time, a fourth, a fifth, and in each group equally.
The implications, then, are that memory is malleable. We can, at one point in time, positively associate something in our lives that, at another time, might terrify or enrage us. This suggests that our memory is not linear, like a movie, but is rather like a lump of clay that can be reshaped and remade over, and over again.
For Show Pro Mafia News, I'm Aaron Golly.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) exposed two separate groups of mice to either a positive experience (spending time with female mice), or a negative experience (light electrical shocks to the feet). After exposure to these good and and bad experiences, researchers would expose the mice to a bright blue light. The mice who received the electrical shocks ran and cowered from the light, apparently fleeing memories triggered by the blue hue. Conversely, the male mice exposed to the female population (a good memory) basked in the light, again seemingly reminded of their experience by the strange-colored light.
Here's where it gets cool: now that our mice have an association with blue light and either a positive or negative memory, can we switch or reverse their reaction to the blue light? The answer seems to be "yes." Using the mice exposed to the females, researchers now exposed the mice to electrical shocks and blue light simultaneously. The result was somewhat expected, and very-thought provoking: the mice started to associate the blue light with their new, negative experiences, despite being exposed to the light for roughly the same amount of time in both positive and negative situations. The researchers could then reverse the memory a third time, a fourth, a fifth, and in each group equally.
The implications, then, are that memory is malleable. We can, at one point in time, positively associate something in our lives that, at another time, might terrify or enrage us. This suggests that our memory is not linear, like a movie, but is rather like a lump of clay that can be reshaped and remade over, and over again.
For Show Pro Mafia News, I'm Aaron Golly.
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