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I saw a demonstration of this technology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where scientists have been able to create a chip the size of a pinpoint. To exam these catoms, I had to enter a “clean room” wearing a special white uniform, plastic boots, and a cap to prevent even the smallest dust particle from entering. Then, under a microscope, I could see the intricate circuitry inside each catom, which makes it possible to program it wirelessly to change the electrical charge on its surface. In the same way we can program software today, in the future it may be possible to program hardware. The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form

The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form useful objects, and to see if they can be changed or morphed into another object at will. It may take until mid-century before we have working prototypes of programmable matter. Because of the complexity of programming billions of catoms, a special computer would have to be created to orchestrate the charge on each catom. Perhaps by the end of this century, it will be possible to mentally control this computer so that we can change one object into another. We would not have to memorize the charges and configuration within an object. We would just give the mental command to the computer to change one object into another.

Eventually we might have catalogs listing all the various objects that are programmable, such as furniture, appliances, and electronics. Then by telepathically communicating with the computer, it should be possible to change one object into another. Redecorating your living room, remodeling your kitchen, and buying Christmas presents could all be done mentally. A MORALITY TALE Having every wish come true is something that only a divinity can accomplish. However, there is also a downside to this celestial power. All technologies can be used for good or for evil. Ultimately, science is a double-edged sword. One side of the sword can cut against poverty, disease, and ignorance. But the other side can cut against people, in several ways.

These technologies could conceivably make wars even more vicious. Perhaps one day, all hand-to-hand combat will be between two surrogates, armed with a battery of high-tech weapons. The actual warriors, sitting safely thousands of miles away, would unleash a barrage of the latest high-tech weaponry with little regard for the collateral damage they are inflicting on civilians. Although wars fought with surrogates may preserve the lives of the soldiers themselves, they might also cause horrendous civilian and property damage. The bigger problem is that this power may also be too great for any common mortal to control. In the novel Carrie, Stephen King explored the world of a young girl who was constantly taunted by her peers. She was ostracized by the in-crowd and her life became a never-ending series of insults and humiliations. However, her tormentors did not know one thing about her: she was telekinetic. After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress

After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress at the prom, she finally cracks. She summons all her telekinetic power to trap her classmates and then annihilate them one by one. In a final gesture, she decides to burn the entire school down. But her telekinetic power was too great to control. She ultimately perishes in the fire that she started. Not only can the awesome power of telekinesis backfire, but there is another problem as well. Even if you have taken all the precautions to understand and harness this power, it could still destroy you if, ironically enough, it is too obedient to your thoughts and commands. Then the very thoughts you conceive may spell your doom.

The movie Forbidden Planet (1956) is based on a play by William Shakespeare, The Tempest, which begins with a sorcerer and his daughter stranded on a deserted island. But in Forbidden Planet, a professor and his daughter are stranded on a distant planet that was once the home of the Krell, a civilization millions of years more advanced than ours. Their greatest achievement was to create a device that gave them the ultimate power of telekinesis, the power to control matter in all its forms by the mind. Anything they desired suddenly materialized before them. This was the power to reshape reality itself to their whims. Yet on the eve of their greatest triumph, as they were turning on this device the Krell disappeared without a trace. What could have possibly destroyed this most advanced civilization?

When a crew of earthmen land on the planet to rescue the man and his daughter, they find that there is a hideous monster haunting the planet, slaughtering crew members at will. Finally, one crew member discovers the secret behind both the Krell and the monster. Before he dies, he gasps, “Monsters from the id.” Then the shocking truth suddenly dawns on the professor. The very night that the Krell turned on their telekinesis machine, they fell asleep. All the repressed desires from their ids then suddenly materialized. Buried in the subconscious of these highly developed creatures were the long-suppressed animal urges and desires of their ancient past. Every fantasy, every dream of revenge suddenly came true, so this great civilization destroyed itself overnight. They had conquered many worlds, but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious minds.

but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious minds. That is a lesson for anyone who desires to unleash the power of the mind. Within the mind, you find the noblest achievements and thoughts of humanity. But you will also find monsters from the id. CHANGING WHO WE ARE: OUR MEMORIES AND INTELLIGENCE So far, we have discussed the power of science to extend our mental abilities via telepathy and telekinesis. We basically remain the same; these developments do nothing to change the essence of who we are. However, there is an entirely new frontier opening up that alters the very nature of what it means to be human. Using the very latest in genetics, electromagnetics, and drug therapy, it may become possible in the near future to alter our memories and even enhance our intelligence. The idea of downloading a memory, learning complex skills overnight, and becoming super intelligent is slowly leaving the realm of science fiction.

Without our memories, we are lost, cast adrift in an aimless sea of pointless stimuli, unable to understand the past or ourselves. So what happens if one day we can input artificial memories into our brains? What happens when we can become a master of any discipline simply by downloading the file into our memory? And what happens if we cannot tell the difference between real and fake memories? Then who are we? Scientists are moving past being passive observers of nature to actively shaping and molding nature. This means that we might be able to manipulate memories, thoughts, intelligence, and consciousness. Instead of simply witnessing the intricate mechanics of the mind, in the future it will be possible to orchestrate them. So let us now answer this question: Can we download memories? If our brains were simple enough to be understood, we wouldn’t be smart enough to understand them. —ANONYMOUS 5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER

—ANONYMOUS 5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER Neo is The One. Only he can lead a defeated humanity to victory against the Machines. Only Neo can destroy the Matrix, which has implanted false memories into our brains as a means to control us. In a now-classic scene from the film The Matrix, the evil Sentinels, who guard the Matrix, have finally cornered Neo. It looks like humanity’s last hope is about to be terminated. But previously Neo had had an electrode jacked into the back of his neck that could instantly download martial-arts skills into his brain. In seconds, he becomes a karate master able to take down the Sentinels with breathtaking aerial kicks and well-placed strikes. In The Matrix, learning the amazing skills of a black-belt karate master is no harder than slipping an electrode into your brain and pushing the “download” button. Perhaps one day we, too, may be able to download memories, which will vastly increase our abilities.

But what happens when the memories downloaded into your brain are false? In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger has fake memories placed into his brain, so that the distinction between reality and fiction becomes totally blurred. He valiantly fights off the bad guys on Mars until the end of the movie, when he suddenly realizes that he himself is their leader. He is shocked to find that his memories of being a normal, law-abiding citizen are totally manufactured. Hollywood is fond of movies that explore the fascinating but fictional world of artificial memories. All this is impossible, of course, with today’s technology, but one can envision a day, a few decades from now, when artificial memories may indeed be inserted into the brain. HOW WE REMEMBER Like Phineas Gage’s, the strange case of Henry Gustav Molaison, known in the scientific literature as simply HM, created a sensation in the field

of neurology that led to many fundamental breakthroughs in understanding the importance of the hippocampus in formulating memories.

At the age of nine, HM suffered head injuries in an accident that caused debilitating convulsions. In 1953, when he was twenty-five years old, he underwent an operation that successfully relieved his symptoms. But another problem surfaced because surgeons mistakenly cut out part of his hippocampus. At first, HM appeared normal, but it soon became apparent that something was terribly wrong; he could not retain new memories. Instead, he constantly lived in the present, greeting the same people several times a day with the same expressions, as if he were seeing them for the first time. Everything that went into his memory lasted only a few minutes before it disappeared. Like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, HM was doomed to relive the same day, over and over, for the rest of his life. But unlike Bill Murray’s character, he was unable to recall the previous iterations. His long-term memory, however,

was relatively intact and could remember his life before the surgery. But without a functioning hippocampus, HM was unable to record new experiences. For example, he would be horrified when looking in a mirror, since he saw the face of an old man but thought he was still twenty-five. But mercifully, the memory of being horrified would also soon disappear into the fog. In some sense, HM was like an animal with Level II consciousness, unable to recall the immediate past or simulate the future. Without a functioning hippocampus, he regressed from Level III down to Level II consciousness. Today, further advances in neuroscience have given us the clearest picture yet of how memories are formed, stored, and then recalled. “It has all come together just in the past few years, due to two technical developments—computers and modern brain scanning,” says Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard.

As we know, sensory information (e.g., vision, touch, taste) must first pass through the brain stem and onto the thalamus, which acts like a relay station, directing the signals to the various sensory lobes of the brain, where they are evaluated. The processed information reaches the prefrontal cortex, where it enters our consciousness and forms what we consider our short-term memory, which can range from several seconds to minutes. (See Figure 11.)

To store these memories for a longer duration, the information must then run through the hippocampus, where memories are broken down into different categories. Rather than storing all memories in one area of the brain like a tape recorder or hard drive, the hippocampus redirects the fragments to various cortices. (Storing memories in this way is actually more efficient than storing them sequentially. If human memories were stored sequentially, like on computer tape, a vast amount of memory storage would br required. In fact, in the future, even digital storage systems may adopt this trick from the living brain, rather than storing whole memories sequentially.) For instance, emotional memories are stored in the amygdala, but words are recorded in the temporal lobe. Meanwhile, colors and other visual information are collected in the occipital lobe, and the sense of touch and movement reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than

reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than twenty categories of memories that are stored in different parts of the brain, including fruits and vegetables, plants, animals, body parts, colors, numbers, letters, nouns, verbs, proper names, faces, facial expressions, and various emotions and sounds.

Figure 11. This shows the path taken to create memories. Impulses from the senses pass through the brain stem, to the thalamus, out to the various cortices, and then to the prefrontal cortex. They then pass to the hippocampus to form long¬ term memories, (illustration credit 5.1) A single memory—for instance, a walk in the park—involves information that is broken down and stored in various regions of the brain, but reliving just one aspect of the memory (e.g., the smell of freshly cut grass) can suddenly send the brain racing to pull the fragments together to form a cohesive recollection. The ultimate goal of memory research is, then, to figure out how these scattered fragments are somehow reassembled when we recall an experience. This is called the “binding problem,” and a solution could potentially explain many puzzling aspects of memory. For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio has analyzed stroke patients who are incapable of identifying a single

category, even though they are able to recall everything else. This is because the stroke has affected just one particular area of the brain, where that certain category was stored. The binding problem is further complicated because all our memories and experiences are highly personal. Memories might be customized for the individual, so that the categories of memories for one person may not correlate with the categories of memories for another. Wine tasters, for example, may have many categories for labeling subtle variations in taste, while physicists may have other categories for certain equations. Categories, after all, are by-products of experience, and different people may therefore have different categories.

One novel solution to the binding problem uses the fact that there are electromagnetic vibrations oscillating across the entire brain at roughly forty cycles per second, which can be picked up by EEG scans. One fragment of memory might vibrate at a very precise frequency and stimulate another fragment of memory stored in a distant part of the brain. Previously it was thought that memories might be stored physically close to one another, but this new theory says that memories are not linked spatially but rather temporally, by vibrating in unison. If this theory holds up, it means that there are electromagnetic vibrations constantly flowing through the entire brain, linking up different regions and thereby re-creating entire memories. Hence the constant flow of information between the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, the thalamus, and the different cortices might not be entirely neural after all. Some of this flow may be in the form of resonance across different brain structures.

RECORDING A MEMORY Sadly, HM died in 2008 at the age of eighty-two, before he could take advantage of some sensational results achieved by science: the ability to create an artificial hippocampus and then insert memories into the brain. This is something straight out of science fiction, but scientists at Wake Forest University and the University of Southern California made history in 2011 when they were able to record a memory made by mice and store it digitally in a computer. This was a proof-of-principle experiment, in which they showed that the dream of downloading memories into the brain might one day become reality.

At first, the very idea of downloading memories into the brain seems like an impossible dream, because, as we have seen, memories are created by processing a variety of sensory experiences, which are then stored in multiple places in the neocortex and limbic system. But as we know from HM, there is one place through which all memories flow and are converted into long-term memories: the hippocampus. Team leader Dr. Theodore Berger of USC says, “If you can’t do it with the hippocampus, you can’t do it anywhere.”

The scientists at Wake Forest and USC first started with the observation, garnered from brain scans, that there are at least two sets of neurons in a mouse’s hippocampus, called CA1 and CA3, which communicate with each other as a new task is learned. After training mice to press two bars, one after the other, in order to get water, the scientists reviewed the findings and attempted to decode these messages, which proved frustrating at first since the signals between these two sets of neurons didn’t appear to follow a pattern. But by monitoring the signals millions of times, they were eventually able to determine which electrical input created which output. With the use of probes in the mice’s hippocampi, the scientists were able to record the signals between CA1 and CA3 when the mice learned to press the two bars in sequence.

Then the scientists injected the mice with a special chemical, making them forget the task. Finally they played back the memory into the same mouse’s brain. Remarkably, the memory of the task returned, and the mice could successfully reproduce the original task. Essentially, they had created an artificial hippocampus with the ability to duplicate digital memory. “Turn the switch on, the animal has the memory; turn it off and they don’t,” says Dr. Berger. “It’s a very important step because it’s the first time we have put all the pieces together.” As Joel Davis of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, which sponsored this work, said, “Using implantables to enhance competency is down the road. It’s only a matter of time.”

Not surprisingly, with so much at stake, this area of research is moving very rapidly. In 2013, yet another breakthrough was made, this time at MIT, by scientists who were able to implant not just ordinary memories into a mouse, but false ones as well. This means that, one day, memories of events that never took place may be implanted into the brain, which would have a profound impact on fields like education and entertainment. The MIT scientists used a technique called optogenetics (which we will discuss more in Chapter 8), which allows you to shine a light on specific neurons to activate them. Using this powerful method, scientists can identify the specific neurons responsible for certain memories.

Let’s say that a mouse enters a room and is given a shock. The neurons responsible for the memory of that painful event can actually be isolated and recorded by analyzing the hippocampus. Then the mouse is placed in an entirely different room that is totally harmless. By turning on a light on an optical fiber, one can use optogenetics to activate the memory of the shock, and the mouse exhibits a fear response, although the second room is totally safe. In this way, the MIT scientists were able not only to implant ordinary memories, but also memories of events that never took place. One day, this technique may give educators the ability to implant memories of new skills to retrain workers, or give Hollywood an entirely new form of entertainment. AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS

AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS At present, the artificial hippocampus is primitive, able to record only a single memory at a time. But these scientists plan to increase the complexity of their artificial hippocampus so that it can store a variety of memories and record them for different animals, eventually working up to monkeys. They also plan to make this technology wireless by replacing the wires with tiny radios so that memories can be downloaded remotely without the need for clumsy electrodes implanted into the brain. Because the hippocampus is involved with memory processing in humans, scientists see a vast potential application in treating strokes, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and a host of other problems that occur when there is damage or deterioration in this region of the brain. Many hurdles have to be negotiated, of course. Despite all we have learned about the hippocampus since HM, it still remains something of a

black box whose inner workings are largely unknown. As a result, it is not possible to construct a memory from scratch, but once a task has been performed and the memory processed, it is possible to record it and play it back. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Working with the hippocampus of primates and even humans will be more difficult, since their hippocampi are much larger and more complex. The first step is to create a detailed neural map of the hippocampus. This means placing electrodes at different parts of the hippocampus to record the signals that are constantly being exchanged between different regions. This will establish the flow of information that constantly moves across the hippocampus. The hippocampus has four basic divisions, CA1 to CA4, and hence scientists will record the signals that are exchanged between them.

The second step involves the subject performing certain tasks, after which scientists will record the impulses that flow across the various regions of the hippocampus, thereby recording the memory. For example, the memory of learning a certain task, such as jumping through a hoop, will create electrical activity in the hippocampus that can be recorded and carefully analyzed. Then a dictionary can be created matching the memory with the flow of information across the hippocampus. Finally, step three involves making a recording of this memory and feeding the electrical signal into the hippocampus of another subject via electrodes, to see if that memory can been uploaded. In this fashion, the subject may learn to jump through a hoop although it has never done so before. If successful, scientists would gradually create a library containing recordings of certain memories.

It may take decades to work all the way up to human memories, but one can envision how it might work. In the future, people may be hired to create certain memories, like a luxury vacation or a fictitious battle. Nanoelectrodes will be placed at various places in their brain to record the memory. These electrodes must be extremely small so that they do not interfere with the formation of the memory. The information from these electrodes will then be sent wirelessly to a computer and then recorded. Later a subject who wants to experience these memories will have similar electrodes placed in his hippocampus, and the memory will be inserted into the brain.

(There are complications to this idea, of course. If we try to insert the memory of physical activity, such as a martial art, we have the problem of “muscle memory.” For example, when walking, we do not consciously think about putting one leg in front of the other. Walking has become second nature to us because we do it so often, and from an early age. This means that the signals controlling our legs no longer originate entirely in the hippocampus, but also in the motor cortex, the cerebellum, and the basal ganglia. In the future, if we wish to insert memories involving sports, scientists may have to decipher the way in which memories are partially stored in other areas of the brain as well.) VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES

VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES The formation of memories is quite complex, but the approach we have been discussing takes a shortcut by eavesdropping on the signals moving through the hippocampus, where the sensory impulses have already been processed. In The Matrix, however, an electrode is placed in the back of the head to upload memories directly into the brain. This assumes that one can decode the raw, unprocessed impulses coming in from the eyes, ears, skin, etc., that are moving up the spinal cord and brain stem and into the thalamus. This is much more elaborate and difficult than analyzing the processed messages circulating in the hippocampus.

To give you a sense of the sheer volume of unprocessed information that comes up the spinal cord into the thalamus, let’s consider just one aspect: vision, since many of our memories are encoded this way. There are roughly 130 million cells in the eye’s retina, called cones and rods; they process and record 100 million bits of information from the landscape at any time. This vast amount of data is then collected and sent down the optic nerve, which transports 9 million bits of information per second, and on to the thalamus. From there, the information reaches the occipital lobe, at the very back of the brain. This visual cortex, in turn, begins the arduous process of analyzing this mountain of data. The visual cortex consists of several patches at the back of the brain, each of which is designed for a specific task. They are labeled VI to V8. Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a

Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a pattern on the back of your brain very similar in shape and form to the original image. This image bears a striking resemblance to the original, except that the very center of your eye, the fovea, occupies a much larger area in VI (since the fovea has the highest concentration of neurons). The image cast on VI is therefore not a perfect replica of the landscape but is distorted, with the central region of the image taking up most of the space. Besides VI, other areas of the occipital lobe process different aspects of the image, including: • Stereo vision. These neurons compare the images coming in from each eye. This is done in area V2. • Distance. These neurons calculate the distance to an object, using shadows and other information from both eyes. This is done in area V3. • Colors are processed in area V4.

• Colors are processed in area V4. • Motion. Different circuits can pick out different classes of motion, including straight-line, spiral, and expanding motion. This is done in area V5. More than thirty different neural circuits involved with vision have been identified, but there are probably many more. From the occipital lobe, the information is sent to the prefrontal cortex, where you finally “see” the image and form your short-term memory. The information is then sent to the hippocampus, which processes it and stores it for up to twenty-four hours. The memory is then chopped up and scattered among the various cortices. The point here is that vision, which we think happens effortlessly, requires billions of neurons firing in sequence, transmitting millions of bits of information per second. And remember that we have signals from five sense organs, plus emotions associated with each image. All this

information is processed by the hippocampus to create a simple memory of an image. At present, no machine can match the sophistication of this process, so replicating it presents an enormous challenge for scientists who want to create an artificial hippocampus for the human brain. REMEMBERING THE FUTURE If encoding the memory of just one of the senses is such a complex process, then how did we evolve the ability to store such vast amounts of information in our long-term memory? Instinct, for the most part, guides the behavior of animals, which do not appear to have much of a long¬ term memory. But as neurobiologist Dr. James McGaugh of the University of California at Irvine says, “The purpose of memory is to predict the future,” which raises an interesting possibility. Perhaps long¬ term memory evolved because it was useful for simulating the future. In other words, the fact that we can remember back into the distant past is due to the demands and advantages of simulating the future.

Indeed, brain scans done by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis indicate that areas used to recall memories are the same as those involved in simulating the future. In particular, the link between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus lights up when a person is engaged in planning for the future and remembering the past. In some sense, the brain is trying to “recall the future,” drawing upon memories of the past in order to determine how something will evolve into the future. This may also explain the curious fact that people who suffer from amnesia—such as HM—are often unable to visualize what they will be doing in the future or even the very next day.

“You might look at it as mental time travel—the ability to take thoughts about ourselves and project them either into the past or into the future,” says Dr. Kathleen McDermott of Washington University. She also notes that their study proves a “tentative answer to a longstanding question regarding the evolutionary usefulness of memory. It may just be that the reason we can recollect the past in vivid detail is that this set of processes is important for being able to envision ourselves in future scenarios. This ability to envision the future has clear and compelling adaptive significance.” For an animal, the past is largely a waste of precious resources, since it gives them little evolutionary advantage. But simulating the future, given the lessons of the past, is an essential reason why humans became intelligent. AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX

AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX In 2012 the same scientists from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the University of Southern California who created an artificial hippocampus in mice announced an even more far-reaching experiment. Instead of recording a memory in the mouse hippocampus, they duplicated the much more sophisticated thinking process of the cortex of a primate.

They took five rhesus monkeys and inserted tiny electrodes into two layers of their cortex, called the L2/3 and L5 layers. They then recorded neural signals that went between these two layers as the monkeys learned a task. (This task involved the monkeys seeing a set of pictures, and then being rewarded if they could pick out these same pictures from a much larger set.) With practice, the monkeys could perform the task with 75 percent accuracy. But if the scientists fed the signal back into the cortex as the monkey was performing the test, its performance increased by 10 percent. When certain chemicals were given to the monkey, its performance dropped by 20 percent. But if the recording was fed back into the cortex, its performance exceeded its normal level. Although this was a small sample size and there was only a modest improvement in performance, the study still suggests that the scientists’ recording accurately captured the decision-making process of the cortex.

Because this study was done on primates rather than mice and involved the cortex and not the hippocampus, it could have vast implications when human trials begin. Dr. Sam A. Deadwyler of Wake Forest says, “The whole idea is that the device would generate an output pattern that bypasses the damaged area, proving an alternative connection” in the brain. This experiment has a possible application for patients whose neocortex has been damaged. Like a crutch, this device would perform the thinking operation of the damaged area. AN ARTIFICIAL CEREBELLUM It should also be pointed out that the artificial hippocampus and neocortex are but the first steps. Eventually, other parts of the brain will have artificial counterparts. For example, scientists at Tel Aviv University in Israel have already created an artificial cerebellum for a rat. The cerebellum is an essential part of the reptilian brain that controls our balance and other basic bodily functions.

Usually when a puff of air is directed at a rat’s face, it blinks. If a sound is made at the same time, the rat can be conditioned to blink just by hearing the sound. The goal of the Israeli scientists was to create an artificial cerebellum that could duplicate this feat. First the scientists recorded the signals entering the brain stem when the puff of air hit the rat’s face and the sound was heard. Then the signal was processed and sent back to the brain stem at another location. As expected, the rats blinked upon receiving the signal. Not only is this the first time that an artificial cerebellum functioned correctly, it is the first time that messages were received from one part of the brain, processed, and then uploaded into a different part of the brain.

Commenting on this work, Francesco Sepulveda of the University of Essex says, “This demonstrates how far we have come towards creating circuitry that could one day replace damaged brain areas and even enhance the power of the healthy brain.” He also sees great potential for artificial brains in the future, adding, “It will likely take us several decades to get there, but my bet is that specific, well-organized brain parts such as the hippocampus or the visual cortex will have synthetic correlates before the end of the century.” Although progress in creating artificial replacements for the brain is moving remarkably fast given the complexity of the process, it is a race against time when one considers the greatest threat facing our public health system, the declining mental abilities of people with Alzheimer’s. ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY

ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY Alzheimer’s disease, some people claim, might be the disease of the century. There are 5.3 million Americans who currently have Alzheimer’s, and the number is expected to quadruple by 2050. Five percent of people from age sixty-five to seventy-four have Alzheimer’s, but more than 50 percent of those over eighty-five have it, even if they have no obvious risk factors. (Back in 1900, life expectancy in the United States was forty-nine, so Alzheimer’s was not a significant problem. But now, people over eighty are one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the country.)

In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, the hippocampus, the part of the brain through which memories are processed, begins to deteriorate. Indeed, brain scans clearly show that the hippocampus shrinks in Alzheimer’s patients, but the wiring linking the prefrontal cortex to the hippocampus also thins, leaving the brain unable to properly process short-term memories. Long-term memories already stored throughout the cortices of the brain remain relatively intact, at least at first. This creates a situation where you may not remember what you just did a few minutes ago but can clearly recall events that took place decades ago. Eventually, the disease progresses to the point where even basic long¬ term memories are destroyed. The person is unable to recognize their children or spouse and to remember who they are, and can even fall into a comalike vegetative state. Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun

Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun to be understood. One major breakthrough came in 2012, when it was revealed that Alzheimer’s begins with the formation of tau amyloid proteins, which in turn accelerates the formation of beta amyloid, a gummy, gluelike substance that clogs up the brain. (Before, it was not clear if Alzheimer’s was caused by these plaques or whether perhaps these plaques were by-products of a more fundamental disorder.)

What makes these amyloid plaques so difficult to target with drugs is that they are most likely made of “prions,” which are misshapen protein molecules. They are not bacteria or viruses, but nevertheless they can reproduce. When viewed atomically, a protein molecule resembles a jungle of ribbons of atoms tied together. This tangle of atoms must fold onto itself correctly for the protein to assume the proper shape and function. But prions are misshapen proteins that have folded incorrectly. Worse, when they bump into healthy proteins, they cause them to fold incorrectly as well. Hence one prion can cause a cascade of misshapen proteins, creating a chain reaction that contaminates billions more. At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression

At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression of Alzheimer’s. Now that the basic mechanics behind Alzheimer’s are being unraveled, however, one promising method is to create antibodies or a vaccine that might specifically target these misshapen protein molecules. Another way might be to create an artificial hippocampus for these individuals so that their short-term memory can be restored. Yet another approach is to see if we can directly increase the brain’s ability to create memories using genetics. Perhaps there are genes that can improve our memory. The future of memory research may lie in the “smart mouse.” THE SMART MOUSE

THE SMART MOUSE In 1999, Dr. Joseph Tsien and colleagues at Princeton, MIT, and Washington University found that adding a single extra gene dramatically boosted a mouse’s memory and ability. These “smart mice” could navigate mazes faster, remember events better, and outperform other mice in a wide variety of tests. They were dubbed “Doogie mice,” after the precocious character on the TV show Doogie Howser, M.D. Dr. Tsien began by analyzing the gene NR2B, which acts like a switch controlling the brain’s ability to associate one event with another. (Scientists know this because when the gene is silenced or rendered inactive, mice lose this ability.) All learning depends on NR2B, because it controls the communication between memory cells of the

hippocampus. First Dr. Tsien created a strain of mice that lacked NR2B, and they showed impaired memory and learning disabilities. Then he created a strain of mice that had more copies of NR2B than normal, and found that the new mice had superior mental capabilities. Placed in a shallow pan of water and forced to swim, normal mice would swim randomly about. They had forgotten from just a few days before that there was a hidden underwater platform. The smart mice, however, went straight to the hidden platform on the first try. Since then, researchers have been able to confirm these results in other labs and create even smarter strains of mice. In 2009, Dr. Tsien published a paper announcing yet another strain of smart mice, dubbed “Hobbie-J” (named after a character in Chinese cartoons). Hobbie-J was able to remember novel facts (such as the location of toys) three times

longer than the genetically modified strain of mouse previously thought to be the smartest. “This adds to the notion that NR2B is a universal switch for memory formation,” remarked Dr. Tsien. “It’s like taking Michael Jordon and making him a super Michael Jordan,” said graduate student Deheng Wang. There are limits, however, even to this new mice strain. When these mice were given a choice to take a left or right turn to get a chocolate reward, Hobbie-J was able to remember the correct path for much longer than the normal mice, but after five minutes he, too, forgot. “We can never turn it into a mathematician. They are rats, after all,” says Dr. Tsien. It should also be pointed out that some of the strains of smart mice were exceptionally timid compared to normal mice. Some suspect that, if your memory becomes too great, you also remember all the failures and hurts as well, perhaps making you hesitant. So there is also a potential downside to remembering too much.

Next, scientists hope to generalize their results to dogs, since we share so many genes, and perhaps also to humans. SMART FLIES AND DUMB MICE The NR2B gene is not the only gene being studied by scientists for its impact on memory. In yet another groundbreaking series of experiments, scientists have been able to breed a strain of fruit flies with “photographic memory,” and also a strain of mice that are amnesiac. These experiments may eventually explain many mysteries of our long¬ term memory, such as why cramming for an exam is not the best way to study, and why we remember events if they are emotionally charged. Scientists have found that there are two important genes, the CREB activator (which stimulates the formation of new connections between neurons) and the CREB repressor (which suppresses the formation of new memories).

Dr. Jerry Yin and Timothy Tully of Cold Spring Harbor have been doing interesting experiments with fruit flies. Normally it takes ten trials for them to learn a certain task (e.g., detecting an odor, avoiding a shock). Fruit flies with an extra CREB repressor gene could not form lasting memories at all, but the real surprise came when they tested fruit flies with an extra CREB activator gene. They learned the task in just one session. “This implies these flies have a photographic memory,” says Dr. Tully. He said they are just like students “who could read a chapter of a book once, see it in their mind, and tell you that the answer is in paragraph three of page two seventy-four.”

This effect is not just restricted to fruit flies. Dr. Alcino Silva, also at Cold Spring Harbor, has been experimenting with mice. He found that mice with a defect in their CREB activator gene were virtually incapable of forming long-term memories. They were amnesiac mice. But even these forgetful mice could learn a bit if they had short lessons with rest in between. Scientists theorize that we have a fixed amount of CREB activator in the brain that can limit the amount we can learn in any specific time. If we try to cram before a test, it means that we quickly exhaust the amount of CREB activators, and hence we cannot learn any more—at least until we take a break to replenish the CREB activators. “We can now give you a biological reason why cramming doesn’t work,” says Dr. Tully. The best way to prepare for a final exam is to mentally review the material periodically during the day, until the material becomes part of your long-term memory.

This may also explain why emotionally charged memories are so vivid and can last for decades. The CREB repressor gene is like a filter, cleaning out useless information. But if a memory is associated with a strong emotion, it can either remove the CREB repressor gene or increase levels of the CREB activator gene. In the future, we can expect more breakthroughs in understanding the genetic basis of memory. Not just one but a sophisticated combination of genes is probably required to shape the enormous capabilities of the brain. These genes, in turn, have counterparts in the human genome, so it is a distinct possibility that we can also enhance our memory and mental skills genetically.

However, don’t think that you will be able to get a brain boost anytime soon. Many hurdles still remain. First, it is not clear if these results apply to humans. Often therapies that show great promise in mice do not translate well to our species. Second, even if these results can be applied to humans, we do not know what their impact will be. For example, these genes may help improve our memory but not affect

our general intelligence. Third, gene therapy (i.e., fixing broken genes) is more difficult than previously thought. Only a small handful of genetic diseases can be cured with this method. Even though scientists use harmless viruses to infect cells with the “good” gene, the body still sends antibodies to attack the intruder, often rendering the therapy useless. It’s possible that the insertion of a gene to enhance memory would face a similar fate. (In addition, the field of gene therapy suffered a major setback a few years ago when a patient died at the University of Pennsylvania during a gene therapy procedure. The work of modifying human genes therefore faces many ethical and even legal questions.)

Human trials, then, will progress much more slowly than animal trials. However, one can foresee the day when this procedure might be perfected and become a reality. Altering our genes in this way would require no more than a simple shot in the arm. A harmless virus would then enter our blood, which would then infect normal cells by injecting its genes. Once the “smart gene” is successfully incorporated into our cells, the gene becomes active and releases proteins that would increase our memory and cognitive skills by affecting the hippocampus and memory formation. If the insertion of genes becomes too difficult, another possibility is to insert the proper proteins directly into the body, bypassing the use of gene therapy. Instead of getting a shot, we would swallow a pill. A SMART PILL

A SMART PILL Ultimately, one goal of this research is to create a “smart pill” that could boost concentration, improve memory, and maybe increase our intelligence. Pharmaceutical companies have experimented with several drugs, such as MEM 1003 and MEM 1414, that do seem to enhance mental function. Scientists have found that in animal studies, long-term memories are made possible by the interaction of enzymes and genes. Learning takes place when certain neural pathways are reinforced as specific genes are activated, such as the CREB gene, which in turn emits a corresponding protein. Basically, the more CREB proteins circulating in the brain, the faster long-term memories are formed. This has been verified in studies on sea mollusks, fruit flies, and mice. The key property of MEM 1414 is that it accelerates the production of the CREB proteins. In lab tests, aged animals given MEM 1414 were able to form long-term memories significantly faster than a control group.

Scientists are also beginning to isolate the precise biochemistry required in the formation of long-term memories, at both the genetic and the molecular level. Once the process of memory formation is completely understood, therapies will be devised to accelerate and strengthen this key process. Not only the aged and Alzheimer’s patients but eventually the average person may well benefit from this “brain boost.” CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED?

CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED? Alzheimer’s may destroy memories indiscriminately, but what about selectively erasing them? Amnesia is one of Hollywood’s favorite plot devices. In The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon), a skilled CIA agent, is found floating in the water, left for dead. When he is revived, he has severe memory loss. He is being relentlessly chased by assassins who want to kill him, but he does not know who he is, what happened, or why they want him dead. The only clue to his memory is his uncanny ability to instinctively engage in combat like a secret agent.

It is well documented that amnesia can occur accidentally through trauma, such as a blow on the head. But can memories be selectively erased? In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey, two people meet accidentally on a train and are immediately attracted to each other. However, they are shocked to find that they were actually lovers years ago but have no memory of it. They learn that they paid a company to wipe memories of each other after a particularly bad fight. Apparently, fate has given them a second chance at love. Selective amnesia was taken to an entirely new level in Men in Black, in which Will Smith plays an agent from a shadowy, secret organization that uses the “neuralizer” to selectively erase inconvenient memories of UFOs and alien encounters. There is even a dial to determine how far back the memories should be erased. All these make for thrilling plot lines and box-office hits, but are any of them really possible, even in the future?

We know that amnesia is, indeed, possible, and that there are two basic types, depending on whether short- or long-term memory has been affected. “Retrograde amnesia” occurs when there is some trauma or damage to the brain and preexisting memories are lost, usually dating from the event that caused the amnesia. This would be similar to the amnesia faced by Jason Bourne, who lost all memories from before he was left for dead in the water. Here the hippocampus is still intact, so new memories can be formed even though long-term memory has been damaged. “Anterograde amnesia” occurs when short-term memory is damaged, so the person has difficulty forming new memories after the event that caused the amnesia. Usually, amnesia may last for minutes to hours due to damage to the hippocampus. (Anterograde amnesia was featured prominently in the movie Memento, where a man is bent on revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his

revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his memory lasts only about fifteen minutes, so he has to continually write messages on scraps of papers, photos, and even tattoos in order to remember the clues he has uncovered about the murderer. By painfully reading this trail of messages he has written to himself, he can accumulate crucial evidence that he would have soon forgotten.)

The point here is that memory loss dates back to the time of the trauma or disease, which would make the selective amnesia of Hollywood highly improbable. Movies like Men in Black assume that memories are stored sequentially, as in a hard disk, so you just hit the “erase” button after a designated point in time. However, we know that memories are actually broken up, with separate pieces stored in different places in the brain. A FORGETFUL DRUG Meanwhile, scientists are studying certain drugs that may erase traumatic memories that continue to haunt and disturb us. In 2009, Dutch scientists, led by Dr. Merel Kindt, announced that they had found new uses for an old drug called propranolol, which could act like a “miracle” drug to ease the pain associated with traumatic memories. The drug did not induce amnesia that begins at a specific point in time, but it did make the pain more manageable—and in just three days, the study claimed.

claimed. The discovery caused a flurry of headlines, in light of the thousands of victims who suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Everyone from war veterans to victims of sexual abuse and horrific accidents could apparently find relief from their symptoms. But it also seemed to fly in the face of brain research, which shows that long-term memories are

encoded not electrically, but at the level of protein molecules. Recent experiments, however, suggest that recalling memories requires both the retrieval and then the reassembly of the memory, so that the protein structure might actually be rearranged in the process. In other words, recalling a memory actually changes it. This may be the reason why the drug works: propranolol is known to interfere with adrenaline absorption, a key in creating the long-lasting, vivid memories that often result from traumatic events. “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell and blocks it. So adrenaline can be present, but it can’t do its job,” says Dr. James McGaugh of the University of California at Irvine. In other words, without adrenaline, the memory fades.

Controlled tests done on individuals with traumatic memories showed very promising results. But the drug hit a brick wall when it came to the ethics of erasing memory. Some ethicists did not dispute its effectiveness, but they frowned on the very idea of a forgetfulness drug, since memories are there for a purpose: to teach us the lessons of life. Even unpleasant memories, they said, serve some larger purpose. The drug got a thumbs-down from the President’s Council on Bioethics. Its report concluded that “dulling our memory of terrible things [would] make us too comfortable with the world, unmoved by suffering, wrongdoing, or cruelty.... Can we become numb to life’s sharpest sorrows without also becoming numb to its greatest joys?” Dr. David Magus of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics says, “Our breakups, our relationships, as painful as they are, we learn from some of those painful experiences. They make us better people.”

Others disagree. Dr. Roger Pitman of Harvard University says that if a doctor encounters an accident victim who is in intense pain, “should we deprive them of morphine because we might be taking away the full emotional experience? Who would ever argue with that? Why should psychiatry be different? I think that somehow behind this argument lurks the notion that mental disorders are not the same as physical disorders.” How this debate is ultimately resolved could have direct bearing on the next generation of drugs, since propranolol is not the only one involved. In 2008, two independent groups, both working with animals, announced other drugs that could actually erase memories, not just manage the pain they cause. Dr. Joe Tsien of the Medical College of Georgia and his colleagues in Shanghai stated that they had actually eliminated a memory in mice using a protein called CaMKII, while scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn found that the

molecule PKMzeta could also erase memories. Dr. Andre Fenson, one of the authors of this second study, said, “If further work confirms this view, we can expect to one day see therapies based on PKMzeta memory erasure.” Not only may the drug erase painful memories, it also “might be useful in treating depression, general anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic stress, and addictions,” he added. So far, research has been limited to animals, but human trials will begin soon. If the results transfer from animals to humans, then a forgetful pill may be a real possibility. It will not be the kind of pill seen in Hollywood movies (which conveniently creates amnesia at a precise, opportune time) but could have vast medical applications in the real world for people haunted by traumatic memories. It remains to be seen, though, how selective this memory erasure might be in humans. WHAT CAN GO WRONG?

WHAT CAN GO WRONG? There may come a day, however, when we can carefully register all the signals passing through the hippocampus, thalamus, and the rest of the limbic system and make a faithful record. Then, by feeding this information into our brains, we might be able to reexperience the totality of what another person went through. Then the question is: What can go wrong? In fact, the implications of this idea were explored in a movie, Brainstorm (1983), starring Natalie Wood, which was far ahead of its time. In the movie, scientists create the Hat, a helmet full of electrodes that can faithfully record all the sensations a person is experiencing.

Later, a person can have precisely the same sensory experience by playing that tape back into his brain. For fun, one person puts on the Hat when he is making love and tape-records the experience. Then the tape is put into a loop so the experience is greatly magnified. But when another person unknowingly inserts the experience into his brain, he nearly dies because of a sensory overload. Later, one of the scientists experiences a fatal heart attack. But before she dies, she records her final moments on tape. When another person plays the death tape into his brain, he, too, has a sudden heart attack and dies. When news of this powerful machine finally leaks out, the military wants to seize control. This sets off a power struggle between the military, which views it as a powerful weapon, and the original scientists, who want to use it to unlock the secrets of the mind. Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this

Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this technology but also its potential pitfalls. It was meant to be science fiction, but some scientists believe that sometime in the future, these very issues may play out in our headlines and in our courts. Earlier, we saw that there have been promising developments in recording a single memory created by a mouse. It may take until mid¬ century before we can reliably record a variety of memories in primates and humans. But creating the Hat, which can record the totality of stimulation entering into the brain, requires tapping into the raw, sensory data surging up the spinal cord and into the thalamus. It may be late in this century before this can be done. SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES

SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES Some aspects of this dilemma may play out in our lifetimes. On one hand, we may reach a point where we can learn calculus by simply uploading the skill. The educational system would be turned upside down; perhaps it would free teachers to spend more time mentoring students and giving them one-on-one attention in areas of cognition that are less skill-based and cannot be mastered by hitting a button. The rote memorization necessary to become a professional doctor, lawyer, or scientist could also be drastically reduced through this method. In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never

In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never happened, prizes that we never won, lovers whom we never loved, or families that we never had. It could make up for deficiencies, creating perfect memories of a life never lived. Parents would love this, since they could teach their children lessons taken from real memories. The demand for such a device could be enormous. Some ethicists fear that these fake memories would be so vivid that we would prefer to relive imaginary lives rather than experiencing our real ones.

The unemployed may also benefit from being able to learn new marketable skills by having memories implanted. Historically, millions of workers were left behind every time a new technology was introduced, often without any safety net. That’s why we don’t have many blacksmiths or wagon makers anymore. They turned into autoworkers and other industrial workers. But retraining requires a large amount of time and commitment. If skills can be implanted into the brain, there would be an immediate impact on the world economic system, since we wouldn’t have to waste so much human capital. (To some degree, the value of a certain skill may be devalued if memories can be uploaded into anyone, but this is compensated for by the fact that the number and quality of skilled workers would vastly increase.)

The tourism industry will also experience a tremendous boost. One barrier to foreign travel is the pain of learning new customs and conversing with new phrases. Tourists would be able to share in the experience of living in a foreign land, rather than getting bogged down trying to master the local currency and the details of the transportation system. (Although uploading an entire language, with tens of thousands of words and expressions, would be difficult, it might be possible to upload enough information to carry on a decent conversation.)

Inevitably, these memory tapes will find their way onto social media. In the future, you might be able to record a memory and upload it to the Internet for millions to feel and experience. Previously, we discussed a brain-net through which you can send thoughts. But if memories can be recorded and created, you might also be able to send entire experiences. If you just won a gold medal at the Olympic Games, why not share the agony and the ecstasy of victory by putting your memories on the web? Maybe the experience will go viral and billions can share in your moment’s glory. (Children, who are often at the forefront of video games and social media, may make a habit of recording memorable experiences

and uploading them onto the Internet. Like taking a picture with a cell phone, it would be second nature to them to record entire memories. This would require both the sender and the receiver to have nearly invisible nanowires connecting to their hippocampus. The information would then be sent wirelessly to a server, which would convert the message to a digital signal that can be carried by the Internet. In this way, you could have blogs, message boards, social media, and chat rooms where, instead of uploading pictures and videos, you would upload memories and emotions.) A LIBRARY OF SOULS

A LIBRARY OF SOULS People may also want to have a geneology of memories. When searching records of our ancestors, we see only a one-dimensional portrait of their lives. Throughout human history, people have lived, loved, and died without leaving a substantial record of their existence. Mostly we just find the birth and death dates of our relatives, with little in between. Today we leave a long trail of electronic documents (credit card receipts, bills, e-mails, bank statements, etc.). By default, the web is becoming a giant repository of all the documents that describe our lives, but this still doesn’t tell anyone much about what we were thinking or feeling. Perhaps in the far future, the web could become a giant library chronicling not just the details of our lives but also our consciousness.

In the future, people might routinely record their memories so their descendants can share the same experiences. Visiting the library of memories for your clan, you would be able to see and feel how they lived, and also how you fit into the larger scheme of things. This means that anyone could replay our lives, long after we have died, by hitting the “play” button. If this vision is correct, it means that we might be able to “bring back” our ancestors for an afternoon chat, simply by inserting a disk into the library and pushing a button. Meanwhile, if you want to share in the experiences of your favorite historical figures, you might be able to have an intimate look into how they felt as they confronted major crises in their lives. If you have a role model and wish to know how they negotiated and survived the great defeats of their life, you could experience their memory tapes and gain

valuable insight. Imagine being able to share the memories of a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. You might get clues about how great discoveries are made. Or you might be able to share the memories of great politicians and statesmen as they made crucial decisions that affected world history. Dr. Miguel Nicolelis believes all this will one day become reality. He says, “Each of these perennial records would be revered as a uniquely precious jewel, one among billions of equally exclusive minds that once lived, loved, suffered, and prospered, until they, too, become immortalized, not clad in cold and silent gravestones, but released through vivid thoughts, intensely lived loves, and mutually endured sorrows.” THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY

THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY Some scientists have pondered the ethical implications of this technology. Almost every new medical discovery caused ethical concerns when it was introduced. Some of them had to be restricted or banned when proven harmful (like the sleeping drug thalidomide, which caused birth defects). Others have been so successful they changed our conception of who we are, such as test-tube babies. When Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in 1978, it created such a media storm that even the pope issued a document critical of this technology. But today, perhaps your sibling, child, spouse, or even you may be a product of in vitro fertilization. Like many technologies, eventually the public will simply get used to the idea that memories can be recorded and shared.

Other bioethicists have different worries. What happens if memories are given to us without our permission? What happens if these memories are painful or destructive? Or what about Alzheimer’s patients, who are eligible for memory uploads but are too sick to give permission? The late Bernard Williams, a philosopher at Oxford University, worried that this device might disturb the natural order of things, which is to forget. “Forgetting is the most beneficial process we possess,” he says. If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could

If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could also shake the foundation of our legal system. One of the pillars of justice is the eyewitness account, but what would happen if fake memories were implanted? Also, if the memory of a crime can be created, then it might secretly be implanted into the brain of an innocent person. Or, if a criminal needs an alibi, he could secretly implant a memory into another person’s brain, convincing him that they were together when the crime was being committed. Furthermore, not just verbal testimony but also legal documents would be suspect, since when we sign affidavits and legal documents, we depend on our memory to clarify what is true and false.

Safeguards would have to be introduced. Laws will have to be passed that clearly define the limits of granting or denying access to memories. Just as there are laws limiting the ability of the police or third parties to enter your home, there would be laws to prevent people from accessing your memories without your permission. There would also have to be a way to mark these memories so that the person realizes that they are fake. Thus, he would still be able to enjoy the memory of a nice vacation, but he would also know that it never happened.

Taping, storing, and uploading our memories may allow us to record the past and master new skills. But doing so will not alter our innate ability to digest and process this large body of information. To do that, we need to enhance our intelligence. Progress in this direction is hindered by the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of intelligence. However, there is one example of genius and intelligence that no one can dispute, and that is Albert Einstein. Remarkably, sixty years after his death, his brain is still yielding invaluable clues to the nature of intelligence. Some scientists believe that, using a combination of electromagnetics, genetics, and drug therapy, it may be possible to boost our intelligence to the genius level. They cite the fact that random injuries to the brain have been documented that can suddenly change a person of normal ability into a “savant,” one whose spectacular mental and artistic ability

is off the scale. This can be achieved now by random accidents, but what happens when science intervenes and illuminates the secret of this process? The brain is wider than the sky For, put them side by side The one the other will contain With ease, and you beside. —EMILY DICKINSON Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see. —ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER 6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR INTELLIGENCE Albert Einstein’s brain is missing. Or, at least it was for fifty years, until the heirs of the doctor who spirited it away shortly after his death in 1955 finally returned it to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in 2010. Analysis of his brain may help clarify these questions: What is genius? How do you measure intelligence and its relationship to success in life? There are also philosophical questions: Is genius a function of our genes, or is it more a question of personal struggle and achievement?

And, finally, Einstein’s brain may help answer the key question: Can we boost our own intelligence? The word “Einstein” is no longer a proper noun that refers to a specific person. It now simply means “genius.” The picture that the name conjures up (baggy pants, flaming white hair, disheveled looks) is equally iconic and instantly recognizable. The legacy of Einstein has been enormous. When some physicists in 2011 raised the possibility that he was wrong, that particles could break the light barrier, it created a firestorm of controversy in the physics world that spilled over into the popular press. The very idea that relativity, which forms the cornerstone of modern physics, could be wrong had physicists around the world shaking their heads. As expected, once the result was recalibrated, Einstein was shown to be right once again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein.

again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein. One way to gain insight into the question “What is genius?” is to analyze Einstein’s brain. Apparently on the spur of the moment, Dr. Thomas Harvey, the doctor at the Princeton hospital who was performing the autopsy on Einstein, decided to secretly preserve his brain, against the knowledge and wishes of Einstein’s family. Perhaps he preserved Einstein’s brain with the vague notion that one day it might unlock the secret of genius. Perhaps he thought, like many others, that there was a peculiar part of Einstein’s brain that was the seat of his vast intelligence. Brian Burrell, in his book Postcards from the Brain Museum, speculates that perhaps Dr. Harvey “got caught up in the moment and was transfixed in the presence of greatness. What he quickly discovered was that he had bitten off more than he could chew.”

What happened to Einstein’s brain after that sounds more like a comedy than a science story. Over the years, Dr. Harvey promised to publish his results of analyzing Einstein’s brain. But he was no brain specialist, and kept making excuses. For decades, the brain sat in two large mason jars filled with formaldehyde and placed in a cider box, under a beer cooler. He had a technician slice the brain into 240 pieces, and on rare occasions he would mail a few to scientists who wanted to study them. Once, pieces were mailed to a scientist at Berkeley in a mayonnaise container.

Forty years later, Dr. Harvey drove across the country in a Buick Skylark carrying Einstein’s brain in a Tupperware container, hoping to return it to Einstein’s granddaughter Evelyn. She refused to accept it. After Dr. Harvey’s death in 2007, it was left to his heirs to properly donate his collection of slides and portions of Einstein’s brain to science. The history of Einstein’s brain is so unusual that a TV documentary was filmed about it. (It should be pointed out that Einstein’s brain was not the only one to be preserved for posterity. The brain of one of the greatest geniuses of mathematics, Carl Friedrich Gauss, often called the Prince of Mathematicians, was also preserved by a doctor a century earlier. Back then, the anatomy of the brain was largely unexplored, and no conclusions could be drawn other than the fact that it had unusually large convolutions or folds.)

One might expect that Einstein’s brain was far beyond an ordinary human’s, that it must have been huge, perhaps with areas that were abnormally large. In fact, the opposite has been found (it is slightly smaller, not larger, than normal). Overall, Einstein’s brain is quite ordinary. If a neurologist did not know that this was Einstein’s brain, he probably would not give it a second thought. The only differences found in Einstein’s brain were rather minor. A certain part of his brain, called the angular gyri, was larger than normal, with the inferior parietal regions of both hemispheres 15 percent wider

than average. Notably, these parts of the brain are involved in abstract thought, in the manipulation of symbols such as writing and mathematics, and in visual-spatial processing. But his brain was still within the norm, so it is not clear whether the genius of Einstein lay in the organic structure of his brain or in the force of his personality, his outlook, and the times. In a biography that I once wrote of Einstein, titled Einstein’s Cosmos, it was clear to me that certain features of his life were just as important as any anomaly in his brain. Perhaps Einstein himself said it best when he said, “I have no special talents.... I am only passionately curious.” In fact, Einstein would confess that he had to struggle with mathematics in his youth. To one group of schoolchildren, he once confided, “No matter what difficulties you may have with mathematics, mine were greater.” So why was Einstein Einstein?

First, Einstein spent most of his time thinking via “thought experiments.” He was a theoretical physicist, not an experimental one, so he was continually running sophisticated simulations of the future in his head. In other words, his laboratory was his mind.

Second, he was known to spend up to ten years or more on a single thought experiment. From the age of sixteen to twenty-six, he focused on the problem of light and whether it was possible to outrace a light beam. This led to the birth of special relativity, which eventually revealed the secret of the stars and gave us the atomic bomb. From the age of twenty- six to thirty-six, he focused on a theory of gravity, which eventually gave us black holes and the big-bang theory of the universe. And then from the age of thirty-six to the end of his life, he tried to find a theory of everything to unify all of physics. Clearly, the ability to spend ten or more years on a single problem showed the tenacity with which he would simulate experiments in his head.

Third, his personality was important. He was a bohemian, so it was natural for him to rebel against the establishment in physics. Not every physicist had the nerve or the imagination to challenge the prevailing theory of Isaac Newton, which had held sway for two hundred years before Einstein. Fourth, the time was right for the emergence of an Einstein. In 1905, the old physical world of Newton was crumbling in light of experiments that clearly suggested a new physics was about to be born, waiting for a genius to show the way. For example, the mysterious substance called radium glowed in the dark all by itself indefinitely, as if energy was being created out of thin air, violating the theory of conservation of energy. In other words, Einstein was the right man for the times. If somehow it becomes possible to clone Einstein from the cells in his preserved brain, I suspect that the clone would not be the next Einstein. The historic circumstances must also be right to create a genius.

The point here is that genius is perhaps a combination of being born with certain mental abilities and also the determination and drive to achieve great things. The essence of Einstein’s genius was probably his extraordinary ability to simulate the future through thought experiments, creating new physical principles via pictures. As Einstein himself once said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” And to Einstein, imagination meant shattering the boundaries of the known and entering the domain of the unknown. All of us are born with certain abilities that are programmed into our genes and the structure of our brains. That is the luck of the draw. But how we arrange our thoughts and experiences and simulate the future is something that is totally within our control. Charles Darwin himself once wrote, “I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.” CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED?

CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED? This rekindles the question, Are geniuses made or born? How does the nature/nurture debate solve the mystery of intelligence? Can an ordinary person become a genius? Since brain cells are notoriously hard to grow, it was once thought that intelligence was fixed by the time we became young adults. But one thing is becoming increasingly clear with new brain research: the brain itself can change when it learns. Although brain cells are not being added in the cortex, the connections between neurons are changing every time a new task is learned. For example, scientists in 2011 analyzed the brains of London’s famous taxicab drivers, who have to laboriously memorize twenty-five thousand streets in the dizzying maze that makes up modern London. It takes three to four years to prepare for this arduous test, and only half the trainees pass.

the trainees pass. Scientists at University College London studied the brains of these drivers before they took the test, and then tested them again three to four years afterward. Those trainees who passed the test had a larger volume of gray matter than before, in an area called the posterior and the anterior hippocampus. The hippocampus, as we’ve seen, is where memories are processed. (Curiously, tests also showed that these taxicab drivers scored less than normal on processing visual information, so perhaps there is a trade-off, a price to pay for learning this volume of information.) “The human brain remains ‘plastic,’ even in adult life, allowing it to adapt when we learn new tasks,” says Eleanor Maguire of the Wellcome Trust, which funded the study. “This offers encouragement for adults who want to learn new skills later in life.”