DARPA funds brain implant research for memory problems related to brain injury.

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It's about damn time. Science has already spent more than enough money to heal or "fix" the *external parts of the body. The brain is long over due for some medical love. :)
Epilepsy, Seizures, Strokes, Dementia, Alzheimer's could all be possibly cured or prevented
down the road. :)

*There are a few exceptions like prosthetic arms/hands.
 
It does look really sci fi. I wonder if folks like me with the VNS will be able to handle it. :ponder:
 
Thank's Kirsten that's interesting.

I imagine they might be able to do SOMETHING about helping memory, but I always think of the brain as an organ your incorporeal mind uses to do its thing, and that it can help or hinder it's working (or even prevent). I can't see how a memory per se could be physically present in the mind, but neural pathways that support it definitely. If they can help the brain do its thing, then the mind should be able to work much better.

What I want, after the memory implant, is an algebra device. I could also use a "play by ear" implant, and the "popular guy" chip. Then I'd be all set. Or, better yet I wish they had one of those "regenerator" things from Star Trek that they wave over your body and just fixes stuff, like brain tumors.
 
Ya...it's not really got anything to do with the incorporeal mind. I haven't read widely on research about memory recently but they seem to have made some amazing progress. Neuroscience and philosophy aren't really a match made in heaven.

entorhinal. It’s known as the entrance to the hippocampus, our memory forming and storing area. “The entorhinal cortex is the 'golden gate' to the brain's memory mainframe,” UCLA’s Itzhak Fried says in a university statement. “Every visual and sensory experience that we eventually commit to memory funnels through that doorway to the hippocampus. Our brain cells send signals through this hub in order to form memories that we can later consciously recall.”
 
Well, think about it this way. I think it was seven years ago when I read a neuroscientist say that he didn't think memories were stored in the white or grey matter. Seven years later, they seem to have located at least one vague area where memories are kept. Their long term hope is to create a prosthesis to fill the gaps in 'memory' caused by injury. That is going to take absolutely forever. I'm sure their research will keep turning up all kinds of new knowledge about memory. So whether or not they get the implant right, they will at least have brought some knowledge to the field.

I don't know how much money it costs to run a project like this, though. From my little lounge here in Cape Town, that budget of theirs seems pretty slim.
 
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