Inaccurate memories implanted in mice brains in hope to explain false-memory syndrome

Scientists have successfully implanted false memories of an event that never happened into a brain as part of a study showing how easy it is to create inaccurate recollections of what happened in the past.

The study is based on research into the memories of laboratory mice but the scientists believe it could also explain false-memory syndrome in humans, such as cases where people honestly believe that something has happened even when they are told it did not.

False memory syndrome is important in court cases that rely on the veracity of eye-witness accounts, which can be notoriously unreliable. Almost three quarters of the first 250 convicted criminals in the United States who were exonerated as a result of new DNA evidence, for instance, were originally convicted on the basis of eye-witness testimony.

“False memory in humans often results from mixing different sources of information or confusing something thought or imagined with reality,” said Xu Liu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was part of the research team.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/inaccurate-memories-implanted-in-mice-brains-in-hope-to-explain-falsememory-syndrome-8732466.html