Pentagon’s DARPA Develops Implantable Hard Drives for Our Brains

Greetings,

Pentagon’s DARPA Develops Implantable Hard Drives for Our Brains

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a pacemaker-sized device that someday could improve the memory of soldiers who have suffered a traumatic brain injury – a sort of hard drive for the brain.

“We know we need a next-generation device that doesn’t exist today,” said Justin Sanchez, a program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office in Arlington, Virginia. “That’s what these new programs are all about — not only understanding the brain and these conditions, but building the hardware that enables us to address those issues. You need both.”

Hundreds of thousands of US military personnel returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered a traumatic brain injury, often caused by roadside bombs and other explosives. Those who experience damage to the brain’s temporal lobe, where memory is stored, can suffer from memory loss and other issues.

One of DARPA’s newer projects, Restoring Active Memory, seeks to build a prosthetic device that could aid declarative memory, a form of long-term memory that can be recalled, such as facts.

For example, a future experiment might involve a patient who is asked to identify a series of faces and names with the aid of a brain implant.

“The twist on this is he or she will be interacting with a prosthetic device,” Sanchez said. “So at some face and name presentations, maybe we’ll stimulate the part of the brain that is involved in the memory formation and see if there are particular patterns of stimulation that can facilitate the formation and recall of that memory.”….more here
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/news/20150320/1019804237.html#ixzz3Uy8TvKCL

Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2015 Hiram's 1555 Blog