Neuroscientists claim possiblility of retrieving memories from dead person's brain

American neuroscientists from the University of Southern California have announced the potential for extracting memories from the human brain after death.

However, this process is expected to be extremely technically challenging and far from perfect, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

With today's available technologies, memory extraction might proceed as follows: first, it is necessary to identify a set of neurons encoding a specific memory fragment. Then, scientists must understand how these cells are interconnected and activate them to create a neural network.

Groups of neurons associated with a single memory leave a physical trace in the brain known as an engram.

Neuroscientists have identified engrams in the hippocampus of mice's brains. The memories uncovered contained information about fear-inducing experiences.

According to the researchers, having a complete model of the human brain could theoretically allow them to pinpoint the location of specific memories. However, such a model has yet to be developed.

Moreover, human memories have a complex structure, particularly when it comes to long-term memory. These fragments can be dispersed throughout the brain.

Neurons within an engram are connected through synapses—spaces between nerve cells through which electrochemical signals are transmitted.

When a memory is triggered, it activates a chain of synaptic connections between these groups. However, recent discoveries suggest that memories shift to different areas of the brain over time.

"You get a cascade of neurons encoding different moments, each connected through the engram," explained neuroscientist Don Arnold.

Due to this property, it is impossible to simply "extract" an engram from the brain, as it merely links disparate pieces of the same memory.

As a result, it seems that in the foreseeable future, extracting memories from deceased individuals will only be possible as a collection of fragments, which will be difficult, if not impossible, to reconstruct into a coherent impression of an event.

By Khagan Isayev