Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Science: Researchers ‘Incepted’ Dreams in Rats

Researchers ‘Incepted’ Dreams in Rats. Are Humans Next?
Inception is real!
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Picower Institute for Learning manipulated the dreams of rats. The study underlined and built upon what we already know about the link between memory and sleep, but also could pave the way for the engineering of dreams.
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Researchers ‘Incepted’ Dreams in Rats. Are Humans Next?
"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Picower Institute for Learning manipulated the dreams of rats. The study underlined and built upon what we already know about the link between memory and sleep, but also could pave the way for the engineering of dreams.

Scientists already know that the hippocampus was hard at work during the night, replaying the day's events. That process is necessary for consolidating memories. Researchers did not know, however, whether those events could be manipulated by outside events.

The researchers, Daniel Bendor and Matthew Wilson, used two audio cues to manipulate the rats during the day. The rats quickly learned that one tone indicated that they could find food by turning left; the other tone indicated that they could find food by turning right. During this entire process with the maze, the researchers recorded their brain activity."

Source:  Medical Daily



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