The headline is misleading because it sounds like “one neuron per memory”. I will read the Nature article tomorrow, but in the reporting I see nothing at all about how many neurons are involved. Presumably the “memories” are distributed across many neurons.
It appears that what they actually accomplished was to find a way to evoke a conditioned association by shining light on the part of the brain that learns, rather than by reproducing the original stimulus. And this works only because they have genetically engineered the mouse so that the neurons which learn also become optically triggerable.
Extremetech is almost pure linkbait, I almost didn’t follow the link. And like you wrote the use of lasers and genetically light-sensitized cells is the only new part, there is no new information about how memory works.
The headline is misleading because it sounds like “one neuron per memory”. I will read the Nature article tomorrow, but in the reporting I see nothing at all about how many neurons are involved. Presumably the “memories” are distributed across many neurons.
It appears that what they actually accomplished was to find a way to evoke a conditioned association by shining light on the part of the brain that learns, rather than by reproducing the original stimulus. And this works only because they have genetically engineered the mouse so that the neurons which learn also become optically triggerable.
Extremetech is almost pure linkbait, I almost didn’t follow the link. And like you wrote the use of lasers and genetically light-sensitized cells is the only new part, there is no new information about how memory works.