Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu: A mouse. A laser beam. A manipulated memory.

[@aarongrooves]

This was one of the best TED talks I've ever seen on so many levels. The presentation, the content, the thought provocation. Amazing!

[@natalieholmberg7663]

That was the MOST incredible TED talk I've ever watched, it was so engaging and interesting

[@samlee443]

This could be end of all memories related illness like PTSD, please don't stop, 10 years and no one try to use this in medical implementations?? Come on people, ethical side is in every medical procedure, but the benefits will be huge, the anxiety, PTSD, depression extra.... Are really painful, 😭 keep going and implement this to help those people.

[@Yuxiangrousimamaxiangguo]

R. I. P, Liu!

[@DriveInPsychopath]

@@gravitonusdacicus The scientist committed suicide in 2015.

[@samlee443]

@@DriveInPsychopath why ?????? , How ??

[@squamish4244]

@@DriveInPsychopath Oh no! It just shows how we need to pursue neuroscience for all it is worth. We have to stop losing people like this.

[@5to22a]

Bad memories play a huge part in our gaining experience and motivating us to better decisions in the future. To delete them is to stunt one's all-rounded growth and maturity.

[@drewdamore9419]

Any biological process, adaptive or not, can be made maladaptive under specific circumstances. Maladaptive memoires DO NOT improve one's ability to make decisions in the future. Addiction, PTSD, etc. are all disorders of aberrantly formed memories that ravage and kill the person who hosts them.

[@zhongboyu7298]

Sadly hear that Liu recently passed away. R.I.P.

[@samibaali5311]

+Zhongbo Yu yes i hear about him and always wonder why beuatiful minded mankind always finish first and evil mind live up to 95 years. great lose to science

[@isabellaoliveira52]

AAA rip

[@123meenasalih]

That's sad, he was a good speaker and he made me hopeful of all the accomplishments that we can achieve in science! :( rip Liu

[@tinifcarter]

RIP, Liu!

[@teemukielinen7182]

I'd like to be able to delete all my memories about the best music I've heard and the greatest films I've seen so I could watch/listen them over and over and be amazed every time!

[@zvolencan1]

I don´t want to lose my bad memories. They teach and they remind me of being human after all.

[@matthanrahan6492]

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Satanaya

[@arthurdent9886]

R.I.P, Liu.

[@leyaoyu7376]

I watched the video due to class assignment and found Dr. Liu has passed away... R.I.P., Liu.

[@kalsaraan]

The comments on this video are amazing. on most videos (and most places on the internet in general) comments tend to be illogical, ill-thought-out tangents, but here, they seem to at the very least be on topic (and use proper English), and even constructive and intelligent. Well done people!

[@2bsirius]

Who is going to decide what memories are turned on and why? You don't have to be paranoid to the ask how reality will be manipulated and to whose advantage such manipulation will be used.

[@KaneyoshiSouji]

They make a very good team. Thank you so much!

[@magister343]

Bad memories are the main way that we learn to avoid making very bad decisions. Lacking these memories would make us much worse off. Some bad memories may be so traumatic though that they can due more harm than good. Memory deletion may be a boon when used carefully, but it should not be used lightly.

[@samlee443]

Yes , tell this to the people who their life have literally stopped because of this memories, and mental illness

[@LeonidasGGG]

The application of this is really outstanding. With this we could cure fobias, war syndromes, even traumatic childhood. The down side is that we could also "fabricate" all of this in a innocent brain. Still, we have drugs that also induce both ways and we do use them. In my opinion we should developed this, but at the same time provide legislation form it's use.

[@MysticNessly]

Imagine sharing experiences/memories with others without even having to use words. Scary and fascinating.

[@ahmed_naeim]

this was ten years ago imagine the progress they reached now

[@WolfpackTogether6]

came here after reading Recursion by Blake Crouch. This concept is amazing and terrifying at the same moment.

[@alaayassin6131]

this proves that anything I wanna learn it I can by practice

[@antecave]

what you have to understand is that all memories are combinations of things we allready are aware of, I.E you do not store a new snapshot of your room for everything that you remember happening in there. So In the second experiment they form a new memory(association) of footshock in the blue box that never happened, (the shock was really in the red box) by stimulating the old memory of being in the blue box while being shocked.

[@123meenasalih]

This Ted Talk has made me hopeful and feel like anything is possible with science and that is an exciting thing to know!

[@xhukyx]

While I agree with your point, this experiment had plenty of controls to rule out those kinds of things. They showed that fear wasn't induced when the laser was activating inert version of channelrhodopsin (GFP), when the memory trace wasn't reactivated during fear conditioning, and other controls. Fear is also hard to study and its representation is distributed through out the brain. Its not the perfect experiment, but its pretty damn good.

[@PaulDimsim]

I don't see why not, but not at the level they are currently talking about. After we reach the fully functional method of turning on and off memories, there will most likely be a way to digitally create memories. In turn, allowing us to learn what ever we want by simply uploading it to our brain instantly.

[@n6i9k4a]

This is absolutely amazing. Love the idea, super excited to see it develop.

[@DavesAmentalist]

All you would have to do is run a placebo experiment with laser being fired into the brains of mice without channelrhodopsin and see if there was a significant difference between behavioral responses. Im sure this formed part of the experement otherwise it would not have made it through peer review.

[@StineWins]

All I can think of right now is Blade Runner and The Borg and this also makes me wonder if in the future there could be brain hackers.

[@butlikereally]

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!! i watched that today!

[@LeonardoLionheart]

This sounds very scary to me. It can be a very positive discovery, but there's always those who abuse it.

[@squamish4244]

Well, we already have countless people who try to escape their trauma with drugs and alcohol, and that is a huge crisis. Every new technology must be weighed against its potential risks. Such has always been the case.

[@ACisking24]

It could potentially be bad if people use it to get rid of memories that they learned from though. Those memories may be of embarrassment and the like, and be very unpleasant, but can be vital to development and personality. On the flip side, it may be very beneficial to people who have suffered through horrible traumas like abuse or rape as well...

[@deabayo]

"remember me" will happen much earlier than expected.. :D

[@DimitriPappas]

Agreed - it's a touchy subject, but it seems that's inevitably what this is heading towards

[@Xplorer228]

I completely agree. And there needs to be a TED talk about that topic itself, and in favor of what you just said rather than the ignorant and more pervasive transhumanist point of view which completely ignores the blatant fact that we are not ready. We weren't ready for the atomic bomb and we aren't ready for mind control.

[@ShadowHunter7th]

I completely agree, what happens when you learned something about relationships and yourself after a bad relationship? Like how can you mess with that? That makes me feel like you can't really erase a memory completely without damaging your brain or psyche but maybe you can alter it.

[@danielm.6476]

Yes, but how can we see the flashing thing on the mouses head then ? Maybe the mouse could see it too ? Why couldnt it be like that ? On the sides of the box, there is something like a glass i think, and in the moment the laser was turned on, the mouse looked at it, little like it could see something there .

[@djAmiracle]

Nice tag team talk! Very well coordinated :D And quite enjoyable. And the content is extraordinary, of course ^^

[@hammeredmantis]

It is both the good and the bad memories that make us who we are though. Would not the world be boring if we knew only that which was good, and knew not how to feel successful without the fear and risk of failure? Would there be a point in living a life without the strife, the conflict, the challenge and all the small events that make the good times great and the bad times worth suffering? How would we learn if we knew not what to fear and therein what to avoid to better ourselves?

[@gromby783]

I am seeing some negative possibilities even if it is only used voluntarily. Increased tolerance to bad conditions. If we have an immediate escape from our pain, easily available, why would we ever bother to allow ourself to feel burdened by knowledge? It could be like the escape of alcohol without the side effects of hangover. If we are not forced to bear the burden of negative memories, we have no motivation to improve problems that do not immediately effect us.

[@MyQuietRiot]

Remember in Star Trek's Discovery the Aliens beyond the galaxy utilized chemicals that activate emotion as their basis for language. Communcating by mapping emotions and then "lighting up" various areas in order to give the sentences structure and context? Delightful litlle instantation, here. Analogy connects first 3 min for me. & who doesn't love a Star Trek reference.

[@MyQuietRiot]

Regardless, This study is more "manipulation of emotion" than it is implanting a memory. I'd go far to say, their pitch headline is hyperbole. (or forced on them). I almost conceded when they announced success with REMOVING the memory, until its fundamental essence is as specious as the first. The memory is not altered, only the emotional attachment or reaction, effect of that memory. So, we may be looking at a future of feeling exactly any and every way one only intends to; The possibility of eleminating negative emotion.... which is insane, paradigm shifting in itself. No need for the theatrics.

[@danielm.6476]

It could also well be the case that they used light that is not visible to the mouse but the camera (like your camera can recognize an infrared TV-remote but your eyes can't) or just somehow made sure that the mouse wouldn't see it, but I think they should've made that clear to avoid doubt etc. And btw, why are so many people trying to avoid legal discussions about the validity of the experiment by thumbs down or marking as spam ? Just look up, nearly all marked as spam or too many dislikes.

[@TykkiMikk]

I can't help, but think of the game "Remember Me". It's a sci-fi game that revolves around the concept of editing memories like it's a commodity.

[@O2isfree]

was that activation of fear memory or just over load of information, because the mouse didn't run into the corner and hide. In example of deer in the headlight example they freezes because their eye are sensitive to light and i think they just freezes because of over load of information from car headlight.

[@ralphfurley81]

Here we are 10yrs later. What's been achieved today ?

[@samlee443]

Nothing , why ? , Because some stupid people thinks that it is not ethical

[@ralphfurley81]

@@samlee443 I'm going to look this up also as well as what has Ramirez been working on all these years. I'm sure this study continued out of the publics eye, why not right?

[@samlee443]

@@ralphfurley81 correct, please keep communicating with me , we need to continue this no matter what it cost , if you like we can exchange emails..

[@NoSignalConspiracy]

I hope somone can answer me this. I find this talk slightly misleading. In the beginning the gentleman on the right talked about how the memories and the emotions attached are being processed in two different parts of the brain. And the only thing they achieved was connecting the feeling of fear into the memory of the white (safe) box. So they didnt actually change any memory at all? So after what i understood they can only attach new emotions to memories which originally wasnt there?Am i right?

[@thattomato]

It sad that you have problem seeing others laughing. Life should be should be fun, and having fun while learning is one the the best thing in life. Take a chill pill.

[@erocicTheGreat]

Great talk

[@LittleSpaceCase]

I think most people are scared about the idea of losing even bad memories. But this technology could do a lot for people suffering from PTSD due to rape, abuse, or physical assault. Break ups are kind of petty, but for victims of childhood abuse, this could mean a new life without being plagued by flashbacks or panic attacks.

[@mindylance73]

This seemed very scary to me when I first watch the video. The power to go in someone's brain and change it in any fashion, just boggled my mind. I was reading comments and came to yours. I totally agree with you on PTSD. My Dad suffered horrible PTSD from serving in the Army and doing two tours in Afghanistan. Last December, he just couldn't take it anymore and took his own life. He was 70 years old. Now I'm thinking, could this have helped him if it was something that could be done now in humans? Thank you for making me look at this differently.

[@NthPortal]

True. I wouldn't want to forget what I'd learned. But it would be really awesome to be able to read some of my favorite novels (e.g. The Fault in Our Stars) for the first time repeatedly. There's something special about the first time reading a book.

[@VexedFilms]

Like with all tech, the big decisions may be made at the beginning, but future generations that are used to the tech forget the issues and qualms previous ones had.

[@ZackTuNan]

So this is where inception movie came from?

[@johnchrysler3181]

Xu Liu as a cool voice

[@tammywooliver1971]

I'm not convinced it's really the memory being manipulated...is it possible it's the feeling of the memory rather than the memory itself? I hope this can one day be used to help heal mental health disorders, memories of disease, trauma, and such other things that cause distress in one's body...mind...and soul.

[@sbellaharris]

What is the file format of the "videos" in our brain?

[@GiannisF_77]

"Remember Me", the video-game, is slooowly coming to life.

[@MinakiAC]

So of course that after watching this TED talk I had to go and watch Inception. The very ending was a bit too predictable for me, but it was a great movie nontheless, especially after this TED talk :D

[@helotdjut8361]

go watch paycheck movie too, this concept were told before on the movie, seems this invented years before this presentation

[@Cuddlesthemighty]

The way I see this being used is if someone preforms a criminal act you can see if the criminal act is tied to Nurture then wipe the memories that cause someone to preform the crime. If it is Nature then write a fear response into preforming crime. Similar to the movie 'A Clockwork Orange'. We must agree that the prison system does not work. At least this saves the years of real horror of prison, and solves the problem of reintegration.

[@GERdogge1988]

control. to be in control means everything to many many ppl. if one is in control, one can lead others and change thing to ones advantage....

[@benjones4979]

Messing with memories is something that shouldn't be.. Well.. Messed with. Yes, mabye the good things about it may potentially have good effects. Yet the potential ways it could be misused is pretty scary. What if someone could reach into your mind and make you love them? Or make you agree with them? Its a scary prospect because it erases your will and what YOU want and replaces it with what the other person wants you too feel or think. Thats something that should be off limits

[@dengueberries]

That's not the point. The point is to understand the physiological mechanisms underlying memory recall/extinction. TED is just a buzz-wordy way of promoting your research, putting your name out there, and hopefully increasing your chances of funding your research in the future. This has nothing to do with ""Mind control"".

[@Cuddlesthemighty]

Alzheimer patients experience cellular stress when it comes to recall. SO when you remember something you travel the pathways between the different cells. This is good it helps you travel them faster. But think of pilots, doctors, and any job requiring you to constantly keep those memories well traveled. Eventually the path gets worn down. Now this can also happen through viral infections and other events as well. I guess they could redo those pathways between the cells.

[@ShawnRavenfire]

This makes me want to question everything I know. Did I just watch this video, or did someone just program me to remember having seen it?

[@jamwithmates123]

Turn off memories of fear when I use elevators/lifts. I hate them so much yet I constantly use them.

[@queeck]

Zapping the rat could invoke fear itself

[@ZackTuNan]

13:02 that’s scary.

[@nika.p7591]

This is actually pretty scary. I hope this knowledge is put into GOOD use.

[@BCsenge97]

They are trying to use it with patients with PTSD (post-trauma syndrome) and people who got raped and still haunted by the memory. They are not erasing the memories, but changing the emotional conations, so the person can live a normal life with the memory without anxiety. I'd say that is indeed good use od this crazy technology.

[@mindylance73]

@@BCsenge97 I wish it was further along. Maybe it could have saved my Dad who took his life due to PTSD from being in the military.

[@eikeldopje]

I dno about this experiment when they shoot the lasers at the brain of the mouse and it freezes, how can they be so sure that they're actually activating the fear memory and aren't just messing up the memory processes of the mouse and causing brand new fear in the process? I can imagine that to a mouse an electric shock can evoke fear as much as a few lasers to the memory do. Human testing would be the only sure way to find out I think or at least testing on animals with more complex behaviour

[@Seaswagger]

what if you use a switch to turn off your memory, and then forget to turn it back on again?

[@SilentSputnik]

There was more experiments than just that one. Each experiment had different interferences which did different things.

[@duffmclargehuge]

Why is everybody whining so much? This is an amazing achievement, people.

[@honeymonster147]

Ahh i see, could actually be a factor if the mouse was conditioned long enough. that picture actually shows visible light coming from the "helmet". they should definitely have made sure no visible light from the equipment escaped. in fact, that's a big cock up. (if the experiment worked the way that i am assuming).

[@SkullWaneVideos]

I thought that maybe the mouse could see the laser, or the light, somewhat on his head.

[@thenewbofdk]

this could give terrorims a whole new meaning in the coming years.

[@PedanticNo1]

In the future, we'll all be schizophrenic in a way Philip K. Dick would surely understand! Marvelous! =D

[@SkullWaneVideos]

You haystack analogy doesn't quite work. There are lots of associations in the brain that could lead to the memory, and the haystack has just one needle without the associations leading to it.

[@eimearrose7684]

Are you talking about Fahrenheit 451?

[@beirirangu]

it's hard for me to take a talk seriously when I see the x in the background logo...

[@theleafofmind]

Isnt this just like that Pavlov theory? Couldnt this be like a reflex reaction towards fear or danger, or specifically as conditional reflex?

[@rbela76]

I believe there are many traumas what can be eased this way. better than giving pills for somebody all his/her life. Not mentioning the positive enforcements in any other field.

[@phillypa4112]

I'm confused over who the "one person in the entire world" he really doesn't want watching this is.

[@thehmongzelda]

His ex girlfriend.

[@phillypa4112]

Ya Lee Oooooooooooooooooooooh. Thanks!

[@cybercoltz9054]

i want my mind wiped of all my bad memories.

[@xyixuanx]

niceee could have my bad memories deleted/ altered. wouldnt hold me down anymore

[@MrPuddnhead]

Exactly. Since the mouse can't talk they don't really know what they've accomplished.

[@cripple1313]

Except that the rat only showed fear in that one specific chamber, not any other ones. If it was an effect due to fear in general, then the rat would show a fear response in all chambers - not just one.

[@eimearrose7684]

Oh right yeah I knew it was one of the books we read in school this year

[@akaSnockis]

This kind of technology would be wonderful for people with Hyperthymesia, plus I wouldn't mind erasing some of my memories. Having an eidetic memory is not all fine and dandy all the time.

[@afrothundaaz]

erase the memory of watching the video of two girls one cup.

[@CramBoom]

This could be a disaster to tourism, because people can have memories of being somewhere put in their brain. Or a really cheap touring company can edit people's memory to make them think the experience was good. A lot of laws are going to have to regulate this kind of technology. If you found this video interesting, check out my channel for more science videos.

[@yasho8927]

It’s not going to finish well. This type of meddling with nature.

[@elvisflorian]

So instead of going to school they can instantly zap are memories to know everything down to the basics so everyone is standardly smart I'm up for it

[@franklingreen3100]

How do you know that the mouse is not just scared by the laser?

[@noahgauthier7336]

How can we protect ourselves from abuse of this technology? Consent is important

[@alexxxxxxxXD]

does this mean we can plant memories/information into babies/kids to make them learn and understand things quicker/faster o_0 can we plant the memories of numerous languages in our brain to understand 20 different ones without ever taking the time to learn them..

[@MrRationalThought]

Next step, the animus from Assassin's Creed WOOT! lol

[@ExclusiveManual]

Salesman: "Hello welcome to our dealership, we're selling our cheapest car at the highest price today!" *Shines laser* Customer: "That sounds awesome! I'll take it!"

[@MrPuddnhead]

It's possible. They don't really know what the mouse remembered since the mouse can't speak.

[@FedericoAOlivieri]

Or incoporate false memories of suffering from them.

[@MariaWoods99]

I do not get it, why is everyone so interested in mind control, deleting of ones memory, and things of the like.. can anyone explain this to me??

[@Cuddlesthemighty]

Oh wow, that;s a good one.

[@ivovazov]

We can also plant the memories of your previous life so that you don't have to live again..:-)

[@TheGodlessGuitarist]

Monsters!