I had a dream once where there was some kind of gizmo that I could hook up to my brain (painlessly, no mess) and then use to play back my memories on a TV screen, sort of like playing a videotape in a VCR. When I woke up, I felt mildly disappointed, because in the dream I had been happily anticipating the memories I would like to revisit. Maybe this dream is why this story about deep brain stimulation and memory seems so exciting to me.
I knew that DBS, in which implanted electrodes are used to stimulate activity in specific parts of the brain, is used to treat Parkinson’s disease, and is being investigated for use in depression. I didn’t realize that it’s evidently sometimes considered for use in morbidly obese people as a means of suppressing appetite. When DBS was applied to the hypothalamus of a man in Canada in such an attempt, he unexpectedly and vividly recalled a memory from about 30 years earlier, watching the remembered scene as an observer. Increasing stimulation of the electrodes made the details come to life more. After several weeks of constant DBS, the man’s performance on memory tests improved.
Memory improvement is of vital interest to those who study various disorders of memory, in particular Alzheimer’s; a small pilot is underway to see if DBS can help people in the early stages of that disease. It seems like this might also have some potential as a way to probe the way long-term memories are stored. I have to admit, though, that the thing that captures my imagination is the thought that maybe someday we really could learn how to stimulate vivid and detailed memories of past events. This is obviously not as important as helping people with memory disorders, and the process, even if it were possible, probably wouldn’t be all I imagine it to be, but a wannabe memoirist can dream.
