Mind Over Molecules: The Biology of Memory

[Music] [Music] our memories Define us they shape who we are they guide how we Act they connect us to the world but how well do we understand the Pathways in the brain by which memories are imprinted Consolidated and later retrieved how does emotion affect the things we remember and will science ever gain the capacity to Tinker with our memories implanting new ones and erasing things we'd rather forget and how does the unconscious mind interface with conscious memories these are but a few of the deep questions that scientists investigating the mind and memory are vigorously exploring award-winning Professor Christine alberini is one of the fields leading lights Dr alberini is a chaired professor of neuroscience at New York University where her work focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the formation storage and retrieval of long-term memories thank you so much for joining us you know in in common language when we talk about memory in informal terms you often think of it as this like singular monolithic quality characteristic of the brain that it can make memories but of course there seem to be many different kinds of memories from the point of view of experience right we have things that we just automat ically remember tying our shoes how a chew there are abstract things that we just know about like the meaning of time and a year or a cat or a dog there are experiential memories episonic memories of things that we've experienced in our day-to-day lives is there a taxonomy of memories that helps us organize the different types of memories absolutely uh there are ways to uh distinguish memories in and classify them for example according to the duration we have shorter memories and longterm memories and we all experience that shortterm memories they last for a few seconds or minutes longterm memories they last for days weeks months even a lifetime and we all remember events single events that happen to us for sometimes the rest of our life those obviously are special specially longterm memories and we will discuss about that uh another ways to classify them is according to the system the so-called memory system that processes the information meaning the learning the uh uh formation of the longterm Memories the storage the retrieval and so on and there are different memory systems uh two main ones are classified as implicit and explicit memory systems and in the explicit memory systems we have the memories that we recall consciously so if we are here and we memorize today and tomorrow we can talk about it with our friends or a week from now or a month from now those are conscious memories meaning they require Consciousness when we recollect them those are part of the explicit memory system uh in those we have autobiographical Memories We have uh spatial Memories We have episodic memories and part of those are also the semantic memories conceptual memories memories of some abstract concept so when I say a dog you all know what I mean but you are not thinking of one specific dog perhaps you think about one specific dog in an episodic type of memory a memory of an episode of your life with those details that specific dog in that context and so on but the concept of dog which is a abstract concept comes from learning and is memorized so those are also different type of memories also belonging to the explicit memory system then we have the implicit types and those in those we have many I'm not going to go into all the classifications but the general uh definition of implicit memories is those memories that when they are recalled they are recalled in an automatic way without Consciousness so we just for example the memories of how to do things how to tie our shoes how to ride the bike and so on and so forth so those memories are recalled in an un conscious way they're automatic we do those action automatically so that is the one of the major distinction between the different types of memories according to memory systems memory system means the system that in our brain process those type of information in terms of learning uh storing the information recalling the information rearranging the information in the present in order to change update The Memories We constantly update our memories so we're going to dig a little deeper in just a little while but before we do that just from a more overview sense I think everybody can understand the distinct kinds of memories that you just alluded to how well do we understand the way the brain processes the information that must be distinct presumably for these distinct types of memories do we each pathway that's a very good question we actually don't know uh the mechanisms and now I'm talking about referring more to the biological mechanisms so cell biology molecular biological mechanism genetic mechanisms involved in these memories uh the stud is at this level are quite young it's they started in the late late 80s early 90s last century so we're talking about 30 40 50 years if we consider really the very very beginning it's a very young field and during the first 10 years it was very difficult to get to identify what are the molecular mechanisms of longterm memories and so what the field has done is to use very simple systems invertebrate system sys like a seil called aesia C fornica or the fruit fly dropil melanogaster those are two systems that have been very useful to inform Us in terms of the genetics and the molecular mechanism of memory from the very early days and from that understanding then the field went on to into studying molecular and biological mechanism in more complex systems because nothing was known so it was very important to start from very simple systems where the number of neurons is very limited where the tools to ask questions are uh easier because the system is is very simple and would you say that there's strong evidence that the mechanisms the pathways by which memories are formed are similar across all life on earth right so I was get into that sorry for the long introduction but yeah so from that uh then the field went into asking whether those mechanism found in those systems are also used by more complex systems meaning different memory systems in more complex organisms and it it has not been very easy to get the comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms characterizing the different systems so we just started from what we knew from the simple system and just ask the question are those used also in the more complex systems which means we are looking we are getting what we ask we are asking whether the same mechanism are used so we're getting that type of answer yes they are but so many others which are distinctive which are not completely known are certainly to be discovered I mean is it a challenge that the fruit fly can't respond to questioning they can no definitely you know there are simple memories that are tested and uh and you we we have to consider the question in the evolution right yeah and so one type of memory that is evolutionarily conserved is is or are memories that are important for survival one of the major question of memory is to make sure we remember something that is dangerous so that we don't do it again and we put ourself in danger all the time so if we memorize that and those systems are very very strong uh then we protect ourself from danger or from you know disappearing for for decreasing the decreasing the possibility that the species Will Survive so it's survival simple survival that is present in drosophila in the fruit fly in apesia in all the simple systems in the sea Elegance in the worm and uh as as much as in humans and do you have a a clear understanding of the survival value of each of the kinds of memories that you're referring to because clearly if you remember a dangerous episode in your own past you're less likely to repeat it which is something that will enhance your survival pass your genes for doing that onto the Next Generation and so forth but what about memory that is more for personal identity as opposed to directly for survival is it a byproduct of The evolutionary process or is it just something that complex neurological systems are able to do it's just one of those things that happens the the way I see it is everything is coming from an important uh an important requirement From Evolution um so memories are clearly essential functions for survival and for everything we do every day so one is to protect ourself from danger but the other one is to find the best resources for the most adaptive behavior that every day we have to do uh in that there is also what memory does to each individual which is creating a system that is very individualized and it is very individualized because we learn every day in different ways in different context so why this individualization is important in evolution is that if we are transported in in another place in a different context where we have to adapt to that context and we're going to do that through learning we have to be able to do so so in other words we are who we are because of our memories memories in in the large sense implicit and imp explicit types memories that change every day that uh change according to the new experience so we have a lot of um um storage of information recall of information and then new learning in the context of what we have learned and this happens throughout life just think for a moment what will be your life without memories it cannot exist simply it cannot exist so it's an essential function but it works in a way that every day we are learning something new and we place that new information into the history of our system and that is the memory meaning the storage of information and and of course there are pernicious diseases which Rob us of memories do you think of those at all in an evolutionary sense because after all if memory is evolutionarily part of our strategy for survival after we pass the age of reproduction the disintegration of memory should have no impact and why would the body wake waste energy on preserving these memories when it doesn't need to preserve you for survival any longer is is is that a useful way of thinking yeah that's and I don't have the answer for that right because if we think about Evolution and survival after we reproduce what's the use of it but I I would think uh that the use is to help the group the species to be in a better adaptive uh context so this um and this is you know there is no realove for that but logically we can think that in groups we create conditions that are more adaptive or can resolve certain problems that we Face uh in a different way than the just the individual would do sure so that that would be my answer yeah um and it's important to think about memories throughout life at different ages because they're different so memories of a newborn learning a memories in a newborn clearly are very different than learning a memory when we grow up and we are at a different age but still very young or adolesents or young adults or middle age or aged and each of these stages clearly comes with different biology so what we are very interested in studying is the biology that changes throughout different ages and how this biology is used by the memory system to create new memories to recall old memories to uh create new learning in the history and adoptive so digging down on that if we can just maybe do an example almost an ex exercise so everybody in this room is experiencing the conversation that we're having hopefully it's forming Memories We hopefully long-term memories so it doesn't just go out of mind an hour from now if that is happening inside the brain of either a person watching this live or digitally can you take us through in Broad brush or microscopic detail whatever you choose what's actually happening inside the head of someone who is forming a memory of our conversation right so memories of an episode like this will become longterm if they are important to you if they're important to you it means that there is an arouser it means that some hormones and neurotransmitters that are important for processing attention arousal excitement are released in the brain so those systems talk to the memory systems so other networks of cells not only neurons you know neural science is very centered on neurons which is rightly so however there are many other types of cells in the brain and they all cooperate for all these processes that happens so what happens is that these hormones uh and and systems that modulate the memory systems themselves so the network of cells that store uh and storage actually I'm going to go back to this that store the information long term they create biological changes over time it takes time to form memory so this memory that you form today no matter how longterm it's going to be uh but let's say it will be a longterm memory uh is not now stored in a strong way right now there is a representation of what's going on here here which is actually fairly detailed because you know what I'm saying what Brian is asking who is around you uh you see the details of the room and so on and so forth but this is not the longterm memory that will last a number of changes happen in the brain based on biological activation of Pathways for example there is gene expression transcription and translation those are the two major mechanism in biology transcription of genes translation of mrnas are essential for longterm memories so the way we distinguish longterm memories from shortterm memories is by looking at whether they require transcription and translation this is a Hallmark of longterm memories so transcription translation happens in our circuitry of memory circuitry of episodic type of memories one major region involv is the HP hampus but the hippocampus cross talk to many others cortical regions and other regions they get the input or the regulation the modulation from amigdala for example uh from other areas of the brain that tells that this is an important event to memorize and all those molecular changes in all those brain regions they change over time the first 24 hours are very important but they continue to happen for days and in some cases also weeks weeks that meaning that the hippocampus and cortical regions for example reverberate keeps talking to each other and all that biology that occurs over all this time is essential for forming longterm memories if there is an interruption of those mechanisms longterm memories are not going to be formed the the earlier the interruption is the disrupt ition the more the longterm memory will be absent will be disrupted uh so there the uh in other words there is a a Cascade of molecular events that happens in the brain that over time create a stable representation and this stable representation changes as I mentioned over time and over weeks it shifts from certain regions to others until it Bec this memory is called Consolidated so in other words memories are fragile when they're form over time they consolidate once consolidation is completed the memory is stable and if we try to interfere with the molecular mechanism there is no effect anymore the memories now you mentioned transcription and translation as a vital part of going from short-term memory to longterm memory and so that's the production of certain proteins presum ably do we understand how the production of those proteins are essential to the memory moving to the longterm phase do do we understand that well at the molecular level well is is too much it's pushing it okay but certainly this was one of the questions that started as I mentioned in the late 80s to understand what molecules what genes are expressed to form longterm memories what proteins are made where do they go what do do exactly in the brain uh for how long is this are these mechanisms involved and so on and so forth and and of course we have addressed some of the questions but not all of them so there is this Cascade of gene expression so a number of genes are transcribed and then translated into proteins there are also many other levels of Regulation chromatin changes of course when there is gene expression there is also chromatin changes uh and uh also the uh transcription of rnas that are not translated into proteins but regulate a number of steps so there are there is there are so many steps at at the biological level that converge into a Cascade of mechanisms my lab as many others have focused on the which transcription factors and and Gene trans genes are transcribed in the brain in these brain regions which are required for long-term memories and many others have looked at the translation of this mRNA so we and others of course have identified a number of mechanisms of Pathways that are essential for longterm memory information longterm memory storage as well as uh whether they are re-involved when we recall memories that's another interesting I wanted to ask you about that because from from an experience IAL standpoint just anecdotally when I've wanted to remember something long term even when I was a student what I would do is 15 minutes before the next lecture I would review the previous lecture and I found just by reimagining and rethinking about the material from the previous it just stuck in a way that was more potent for me than cramming it in at the end and when I have to you know give some kind of presentation I want to remember this or that I find just a little 10-minute reminder every single day is what makes it go from short to long is is that consistent with your understanding of how long-term memory is formed it is it is we have studied what recalling memory uh does when we recall memories of course is you know uh intuitively we recall memories because we need we need to do something we need to make a decision uh but what happens in the memory system and why is this recall important yes and it is important as we found to strengthen memories but clearly the recall is not as the learning event so it's a different uh processing of the memory is not exactly strengthening uh completely the memory that we originally had in the learning event but we recall and perhaps is a partial recall and that is strengthening the memory this is is is also what we found but when uh this was studied in terms of molecular mechanism it became very interesting because so as I mentioned longterm memories required gene expression and it was believed that once memories consolidated is no longer uh sensitive to disruption or changes uh of course it can be change with new learning uh but a number of studies show that when memories are recalled they become fragile again for a limited temporal window uh similar to what happens with no learning and during the temporal window again they require transcription translation to stabilize in other words there is a reconsolidation ation happening with the retrieval the recall of the memory so a memory recall can be dangerous then in a way this doesn't happen with all the memories and all the time but it happens and so it can be dangerous right so why should it be if it is dangerous why actually does it happen nature doesn't work that way it happens because with that fragility we can actually strengthen the memory so it is a way it's like a tradeoff memory it's a tradeoff you you go into a danger zone of modifying or losing the memory but the upside is by undergoing this process you strengthen it if it survives in most cases you will not lose it you have to interfere yeah in order to lose it in other words no learning could do that could interfere and this is why memories are not precise because constantly we recall memories we have some new learning coming in uh and Al decays of memories forgetting is another process of memory of course very important we need to forget uh so all the combination of these creates the the way memories work but they cannot be precise because we constantly change them so another way through which these recall dependent changes work uh is to incorporate new information into the old old representation so we recall and now we associate something new to that uh so this uh uh mechanism or process is called reconsolidation it has been studied quite a bit it generated a lot of interest particularly if we want to think about uh for example diseases like post-traumatic stress disorder or addiction yes where the memories are very strong memories of trauma and there're also very distinct right they're distinct from normal memories uh postraumatic stor addiction the memories of how the uh substance feels is very much connected to context people who are addicted relapse when they go back to the old context because the memories of it make them relapse so there was a lot of interest when this reconsolidation and temporal window of intervention let's call it uh emerged because the field thought well it could be an interesting approach to actually decrease the strength of those memories and help the process of therapeutic so I don't remember the mechanism in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but was that the basic idea that they were restimulating the memory and getting in there and somehow ering exactly like that it is exactly like we see this in in in the lab so if we take an animal we use we work with rats and mice with rodents we take an animal they learn something and then we make them recall that memory and during the temporal window of reconsolidation we intervene with it can be in different ways to interfere with the reconsolidation process uh they they forget not that they forget they lose the memory because they cannot reconsolidate it so the they can't run through the maze anymore or something like that the memory decreases wow now you you you also made reference to emotion being an important part of long-term memory formation so and then I don't mean this to sound factious but I'm actually wondering so you know if I'm studying general relativity I'm at my desk and I'm usually pretty calm as I'm going through the ideas in the equation say but if I was to somehow be much more excited and and emotionally disturbed or or in some friends you said is there a better chance that I will remember the material in a longterm way sure for sure but you know we know we know that right even caffeine right I'm I just I don't want to mention other stuff no feel free we're yeah you know we already have this EX examples throughout you know many years we have we know that see I would have always thought caffeine or artificial stimulants were viewed and I'm learning in this conversation they to me were just focusing your attention more fully because you're more awake but not because you're emotionally aroused no but attention is one way to increase the uh storage of long-term Memories the other is arousal as you say so is is a similar is is a similar consequence yeah this hormones can increase do increase the biological changes as I was mentioning happening in the memory system which lead to morphological changes in other words there is a physical change in the brain in those circuitry that store memories as my advisor used to say I train at Colombia with arand sure uh after an event if you form a longterm memory you have another Wrinkle in your brain and um so just thinking about the the wrinkles for a moment um if one is trying to enhance longterm memory which I think many of us want to do I mean it's very frustrating you learn something and then a week later you you just can't grab a hold of it what are the effects of other things like like sleep or or dreaming does that have an impact on our capacity to retain information some people say study it just before you go to sleep in order that the brain can consolidate is is that real is there evidence for that so there are evidence the the most I I think interesting evidence for students is that do not Crown because in order to form a longterm memory the brain needs time as I said this is a a process of biology that requires time memory consolidation if you go right after your learning with another learning event another consolidation process going to start then the brain is confused you're not going to remember well which is the first learning piece or the second learning and these experiments have been done more than 100 years ago shown right so that's called retroactive interference if you go with a second learning event to uh close to the first one the two events are not going to be remembered well in a separate way so do not give time now sleep is very important that's very well known that if sleep or circadian rhythmicity is altered consolidation is going to be impacted because those those mechanism of circity and sleep they work together with the consolidation process the biology that I mention all that Cascade includes uh a number of modification that happens through the Circadian rhythm as well as what happens in sleep where the representation is replayed so this replay is important for the consolidation so if you we disrup not the biology is part of these processes if we disrupt any of these processes and we can go with a biological mechanism or uh or new learning or behavioral approaches uh then we disrupt the ability of the brain to form longterm memories in the best way now can we enhance memories we can we have found molecular mechanisms that can do that very nicely one example we have in the lab is it's a small protein it's called insulin like growth F Factor 2 igf2 insulin like growth factor 2 and igf2 belongs to a um family together with another igf igf1 and Insulin uh but these three proteins they do very they have very different functions and igf2 we discover to be regulated in brain regions important for longterm memory like the hippocampus with learning and to be required for longterm memory formation in other words if this production of igf2 that occurs in the hippocampus with learning is blocked longterm memories do not form so it's required can you do it artificially can you add and then we added so you can deplete the system or you can add right so then when we added igf2 without interfering with anything else just having the learning event the memories will spectac ularly more uh stronger and more longer lasting this is in rats this is in rats and mice uh and this small peptides protein can actually be injected even systemically like insulin can be injected subcutaneously we can do that with igf2 and we have these animals that have a super memory very strong and long lasting significant effect so then of course we became interest Ed in studying memory enhancement in the normal animals but also whether this could be a potential Therapeutics for memory disorders we have an incredible need for novel The Therapeutics that can work for memory disorders and you've not tried on people and we have not tried on people but I started a company because the data that we have seen in the lab are you taking investors in this I do okay so this igf2 reverses not only cognitive impairment so we in the lab we have tested aged animals and the cognitive impairments related to aging is reversed we tested models of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism Angelman syndrome is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder and these are characterized by cognitive impairments so we reverse the cognitive impairments but also the other problems that they have and that was very exciting but also surprising I have to say for example in Angelman syndrome they have Motor problems in addition to cognitive problems they have repetitive behaviors like autism uh they often have seizures and with igf2 we reverse all of these so it sounds like a miracle but it must be a downside right exactly so we started ing what are the downsides do we see for example the memory that that are potentiated in the normal animals are they more rigid no they're not do we see any obvious um uh effect side effect we have not seen but of course these have to be tested in a different ways if we want to go to to uh to people of course uh so so far it's really very exciting what we see with this igf2 not only as a cognitive enhancer in normal normal individuals or normal animals but also as a potential Therapeutics for a number of diseases so what do they have in common uh Aging for example aging related cognitive impairment with neurodevelopmental disorders and other labs have studied igf2 in Alzheimer disease models in Huntington disease models and again all beneficial effect with igf2 what do they have in common they have in common that they accumulate proteins in the brain different type of proteins in different diseases but the common problem is protein accumulation in the brain so we were very surprised to see all these effects and of course went into studying the mechanism for why this may happen and it turned out that uh this igf2 works through a re ctor that regulates protein metabolism in other words the making and breaking of proteins and spits up protein degradation that is the elimination of proteins in the protein metabolism is that like eliminating plaque is that a different type of thing so that's what we we want to do now we want to look at WEA in the disease models we eliminate those specific proteins let's say Alzheimer disease models that we see plaque elimination and so on and so forth some studies already have shown that that's the case with igf2 in the mouse model yeah so it's very exciting it sounds it um I want to just change gears a little bit um one of the interesting realizations in the last few decades in the judicial system is how unreliable eyewitness memory and testimony can be H how do you view that from a a neuroscience memory perspective indeed we already touched upon that memories are not accurate uh I I think first of all from from my personal point of view we have to distinguish between what happened and the accuracy of memory right sure mean if somebody comes up with something that never happened is different than saying oh I have seen that person that day in that place this is where memories are not accurate because uh over time and uh and many rounds of similar memories for example if you return to this room 10 times you will confuse who was at which time in this room and clearly this information is going to be less and less accurate as time passes so if I ask you tomorrow you have a more accurate memory but if I ask you a month from now or six months from now the memory is going to be less accurate considering that the repetition and uh the uh amount of information that we have to make sense with uh and what we do uh you can imagine how uh the information is uh confused in terms of who is in a certain place at a certain time and so this is where the the memories are not accurate we usually say you know if you talk to your family about a New Year's Eve together I don't know some festivity together and uh you start talking about who was there and what was said there is a complete disagreement about the members of the family especially if the the event was is dated right so over time uh the information gets confused uh and that's why the memories are not accurate so yes they can be and do you do you imagine that memories that are say inaccurate or degraded or people completely forget is the root information still somewhere in the brain I mean like a Freudian perspective would say it's always there it's always influencing you even from times that you don't even consciously remember is that a kind of Freudian myth or is there evidence that everything that's ever happened to you is somehow stored someplace and is affecting you in some manner yeah so I don't know I don't know how to answer that question the the fredian the fian essence though to me is different I actually at one point in my life uh trained as a psychoanalyst so I started as a biologist I'm a bio molecular biologist and I keep doing that but at one point I I studied as a psychoanalyst and that that Essence to me and this is what in influenced my studies in the lab actually comes from development so we're switching a little bit gears here it's not this everything is in our brain and everything we do is long is stored long term and that it can appear later I think actually the uncons ious but this is my interpretation I think the unconscious that frud is talking about that influences our life throughout uh comes from development the way we learn from day one even before the learning that happens through development is shaping the brain and the systems and I have started to study that that's why I became interested in studying the biology of learning and memory in infancy so we take infant rats and mice and look at the biology when they learn and what we found it was also very uh interesting and not predicted so we we went into the question without any mindset what we found is that in fact the brain in infancy is learning to learn for a certain temporal window and in that temporal window it's like a critical period it's a critical period that's exactly it uh in that critical period the system is developing and shaping according to the experience that the animal has That's the basis of individuality so it's not the specific details of the memory it's rather how the experience shaped the way the brain will subsequently function and it's open to that influence during this critical period right and in fact we see that the learning that they have in infancy creates what we call a schema because it's something that influences adult behavior and it influences in a way that the first the memory can be um reinstated I'm going to get back to that the infant memory and secondly uh it influences similar types of behavior and this happens only with the learning during that critical period so the reason why we we concluded that there is a critical period is because we tested it uh when we started to look at this biology uh it was believed that learning in infancy uh is forgotten and this is true so what do you remember of the first three years of your life but this is normal so this rapid forgetting that happens in this phase of infancy is believ to explain what's what is called infantile Amnesia the fact that as adults we don't remember the first few years of life the theories and what was known at that time when we started to investigate this they were suggesting that consolidation doesn't work because the memory system that uses the campus is not developed the campus is not involved it's offline uh so we started to give these infant rat mice learning events and then tested whether the memories could come back so that was the first question right if it's gone it's not going to come back we were able to see it coming back coming back it comes back so the the animal forgets because when you test them they they show no memory like humans there is a very rapid forgetting no memory but if you then later on test them with certain type of reminders you can get the memory back and you knew the specific reminder cuz you set up the situation witho yes but we tested a number of them before for us we wouldn't know how to do that but no we don't know and also it's unclear whether those memories that come back are conscious meaning they're conscious when they come back but do are they conscious about when they will learn we have no way to test it my view now is that those are implicit type of representation implicit type of memories not explicit I see that however later on they are recalled reactivated with some new learning or some reminder and then they create the expression of the explicit memory but the infuence what we do they influence what the animal does in adulthood for example we didn't test in the old age but up to adult for sure I can say that so the reason why we we concluded is a critical period is because we tested the biology in of that hippocampi and found that molecular mechanisms that we're identified by other studies in the sensory system as mechanism of critical period are used by our system the memory system to form these longterm memories that are not expressed but they can return and they influence adult Behavior that's that's kind of amazing um unfortunately we only have a couple minutes left I wanted to ask you a few more questions just to get your quick thoughts on these issues I think many of us have had the experience that music is an incredibly powerful way of bringing us back to an emotional state at some earlier time in our lives do we understand why music has that capacity uh here is out of my uh expertise but there are group studying music and how that influences brain activities and how that influence why you know we have this uh why we have this very strong recall with emotion is because music is a CU and that is processed by amigdala uh so there is a representation that is directly linked to the emotional uh systems basically but more than this I I cannot really say because it's not what I'm studying but yeah there are several studies going on with so so another question that may fall into that category if you don't mind so some of the greatest literature has explored human memory in in various aspects and approach is there is there a book out there that you consider to be one that really in an Artful way captures the the Wonders and Mysteries of memory is there anyone that comes to mind unfair questions so no no I would not even mention any because there are you know I would say there are several with different from different angles and different ways um yeah sure and a final thing you know the world is extremely excited about artificial intelligence now and you know it's a wideopen Arena but do you see those developments interfacing or intersecting with the kind of work that you do on the natural version of intelligence and memory uh they're already working together together uh so artificial intelligence is very much involved for example computational work is very much involved in understanding now all the types of mechanisms that are active in certain brain regions and how do they change and so on and so forth so data analysis because a lot of approaches now they're not looking at single mechanism they're looking at the comprehensive pattern so this is where computational comes in uh there are other ways to manipulate brain circuitry uh again is engineering certain uh mechanisms and creating artificial tools that can change the circuitry in the brain and therefore behaviors the these are just two examples but uh there is a lot also done in terms of theories uh that hopefully will inform experimenters how to test new questions about understanding the mechanism of memory and can you imagine just oblique to that but resonating with it will there be brain machine inter faces that enhance human memory is that a direction that you see bearing fruit I don't know um I mean in theory yes but I don't know how easy that will be because biologically uh considering the biology of it which is where I come from the brain constantly changes and this adaptability to whatever change comes in the environment is very difficult to recreate in a machine so we can create circuitry we can create we we can plug in a number of information uh it can be extremely sophisticated but how can we predict something we don't know so that's that's the bias I think yeah absolutely well it's been a fascinating conversation on memory across the various forms of life with that capacity thank you so much and please join me in thanking Christi Al thank you so [Applause] [Music] much [Music] a [Music]

Channel: World Science Festival

Views: 71,874

Keywords: BrianGreene, CristinaAlberini, memory, biology

Id: YYZnoe4ZNv4

Length: 53min 51sec (3231 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 10 2023