semnae

"Could you clarify what you mean by cellular assemblies? And could you explain the relevance of the hippocampus?"

Sure thing. There's actually a fascinating story behind this, which I'll sum up briefly. Once upon a time, a guy was having severe seizures. In order to stop the seizures, his surgeon removed his hippocampus. The procedure was a success, but had an unintended side effect. The man could no longer remember anything for more than a few hours. This led to the realization that any information committed to memory for more than a few hours had to be stored in the brain by the hippocampus. The hippocampus creates what are called "cellular assemblies". These cellular assemblies are assemblies of neurons that somehow hold the information we commit to long term memory.

That's where I'm stuck. I assume that the cellular assemblies create some kind of information code, similar to how DNA constitutes a code that can be used to create proteins. What I'm trying to figure out is how the code is read, and what exactly does the reading. How are the memories stored by the hippocampus as cellular assemblies recalled?

If you want to upload information into someone's brain, that would mean manipulating the hippocampus into creating specific cellular assemblies containing that information. We need to understand how the cellular assemblies created by the hippocampus translate into memories in order to do that.

I am interested in the possibility of uploading information to the brain like in The Matrix. To that end, I’ve been studying the brain and trying to understand how memories work. Unfortunately, I’ve hit a wall.

I have a basic understanding of the structure and function of neurons. I understand that memories are stored in the brain as cellular assemblies formed by the hippocampus. I also understand that memories are not stored in any particular region of the brain, but are stored across the entire cerebral cortex. I know that the temporal lobes become enlarged in people who memorize a lot of information due to the accumulation of cellular assemblies.

What I don’t understand is how cellular assemblies translate into memories. I can’t find any information on this, and the puzzle has been haunting me. Help would be much appreciated.