Scientists say they have,
for the first time, generated a false memory in an animal by
manipulating brain cells that encode that information. They published
their findings this week in the journal Science.
What's more, the
researchers say, the cellular events involved in the formation of a
false memory resemble what takes place in forming a real memory. This
jibes with the fact that humans who have false memories of events that
didn't happen firmly believe that those memories are real.
"We should continue to
remind society that memory can be very unreliable," said the study's
senior author, Susumu Tonegawa, director of the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics, a collaboration between institutions in Saitama, Japan, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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