false memory

“Memory is not a passive record of things past. It's more like an ongoing construction-site, integrating and revising the past with events from the present and predictions about the future.”  [link]

How to plant a false memory by Dr. Susumu Tonegawa [link]: I’m skeptical. How is it possible to know what’s going on inside the head of a mouse ..let alone tell whether it’s true or not. I’m also intrigued. They say the fabric of memory is pliable and self-serving. It can be revised by the simple act of re-hashing things. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus used to demonstrate this with eyewitness testimony. Neuroscientists have now replicated it with mice in a maze. Here’s how:

1. They narrow down a set of brain cells that get activated whenever a mouse enters a new location. Unfamiliar territory evokes a ‘neo-phobic’ response, which adds staying power to novel experience.
2. Then they create a new memory by stimulating the same set of cells and delivering an unpleasant jolt when the mouse enters a neutral part of the maze. The mouse ‘re-lives’ the experience of being in the location it explored before and couples it with the jolt. How do they know? The mouse avoids the location like never before.

They say memory serves as a road map to the future. However humans can play pretty loose with it .. reminiscing or ruminating about things ..which may make us more prone to revising the past. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it but I often recollect scenes from movies I enjoy. Lately I’ve been watching a lot of French films with the actress Audrey Tautou ..who I just adore. I also saw her in the movie ‘Da Vinci Code’ last night. This morning when Audrey Tautou popped into my head ..I mistook her for the character she plays in the movie. A character of potentially game-changing consequence to humanity. It felt eerie. It was just a flash but I’m wondering if this isn’t also some kind of false memory. Perhaps I’m overthinking it. I often blur the distinction between fantasy and reality. I know I confuse scenes from the movies with episodes from my past.