False memory planted in mouse mind by MIT researchers

Scientific Minds Want To Know

From The Boston Globe: "In a mind-control experiment that demonstrates the astonishing power of new neuroscience tools, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers planted a false memory in the mind of a mouse using genetic techniques that allow them to trigger specific brain cells with light. The scientists were able to make the mouse recall something that had never occurred—having its foot painfully zapped when in the familiar red chamber—and react in fear exactly like it would have in response to a real memory." More in the journal Science.