Flatworms lose their heads but not their memories: Study finds memories stored outside the brain

Flatworms lose their heads but not their memories: Study finds memories stored outside the brain:
Automated video tracking and subsequent computer analysis of the worms' movements (image above) showed that the group familiarized to the rough-floored dishes overcame aversion to the light significantly more quickly and spent more time feeding in the illuminated space than did the non-familiarized group...

Both groups of worms were then decapitated and housed in a smooth-floored environment while their heads regenerated. Two weeks later, the fully regenerated segments were again tested. Worms regenerated from the familiarized group were slightly but not significantly quicker to feed in the lighted part of the container. However, when both groups of worms were given a brief refresher session of feeding in the textured environment, then removed and retested four days later, the planaria generated from familiarized segments were significantly quicker to feed than those regenerated from unfamiliarized worms—showing that they retained recognition of the link between this type of surface and a safe feeding environment.

Twisted Magnetic Fields Tie Information in a Knot: Scientific American

Twisted Magnetic Fields Tie Information in a Knot: Scientific American: Writing in Science, von Bergmann and her collaborators describe how they created skyrmions on a thin magnetic film of palladium and iron on an iridium crystal. They began with a sample in which all the atomic bar magnets were aligned. The team then used the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope to apply a small current made up of electrons that had their spins aligned, or polarized, in a particular way. The polarized current interacted with the atomic bar magnets to twist them into knot-like configurations of skyrmions, each a few nanometers, or about 300 atoms, in diameter, says von Bergmann. The scientists could also use the polarized current to erase the knot, deleting the skyrmion...

...this is the first time that scientists have created and deleted individual magnetic skyrmions...

Decapitated worms regrow their heads with old memories intact

Decapitated worms regrow their heads with old memories intact: to embed a specific memory, the researchers spent 10 days teaching the flatworms that food could be found at the center of a petri dish with a light shining on it...

Then their heads were chopped off...

Once their heads and brains grew back, the scientists threw them back into the petri dish. But the memory wasn’t there right away. And in fact, the biologists had to give the worms a refresher course on the matter of finding food — but one quick lesson was all it took; the lesson basically allowed the worms to refresh their memories. Subsequent trials showed that the previously decapitated worms reached the food significantly faster than those (previously undecapitated) worms who were also given the benefit of one training session.

Physicists Store Short Movie In A Cloud of Gas

Physicists Store Short Movie In A Cloud of Gas: Rubidium atoms have an interesting property in that a magnetic field causes their electronic energy levels to split, creating a multitude of new levels. Switching the field off, returns the atoms to their normal state...
These guys have used exactly this technique to store two images at the same time...

The images are the letter T and the letter N and the sequence of pictures above shows the images being released from the gas, as recorded by a high speed camera in 100 nanosecond frames. "We have demonstrated that multiple images can be stored and retrieved at different times, allowing the storage of a short movie in an atomic memory," say Glorieux and co.
Interestingly, the images are released on a "last in, first out" basis, so this movie is running backwards.

Skull electrodes give memory a boost - New Scientist - New Scientist

Skull electrodes give memory a boost: "The technique uses transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in which weak electrical currents are applied to the scalp using electrodes. ...

Subjects then repeated the experiment 12 times, with one group receiving so-called anodal tDCS (which boosts activity) on their right ATL and cathodal tDCS (which inhibits activity) on their left. A second group received the opposite stimulation and a third group received a placebo treatment, which did not stimulate either side of the brain.

Those in the first group more than doubled their scores after receiving tDCS, experiencing a 110 per cent improvement in visual memory. Participants in the second and third groups showed no overall improvement in performance."

Total recall achieved

Activating a small fraction of neurons triggers complete memory.

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091020/full/news.2009.1016.html