Can we upload our memories?

So, back to building a computerised brain. The major issue with looking at human brain cells is that it tends to kill them in the process. The cells need to be stable and unable to move so we can get clear pictures in the laboratory (this is different to brain scans in a hospital that look at the entire brain, rather than just a few tiny neurons). One way around this problem, at least in today’s laboratories, is to use the brains of the recently deceased. Another, more graphic way, is to wait until the moment a person is about to pass away, before preserving the brain. This will eventually be fatal, but the information will be gathered from a living brain, nonetheless. There is a company called Nectome doing just that. Terminally ill volunteers are choosing to have their brains preserved with the intention of storing their brain cells, and therefore their memories, in near perfect condition, essentially freezing their brain in time. Nectome is at the forefront of a brand new field of experimental neuroscience called memory preservation. In 2018, and just hours after death, a human brain was removed and preserved using Nectome’s new technique. This proved the method worked. [1] The brain itself will be used for further studies into perfecting the storage process for others.

To do this new type of preservation, Nectome has developed a chemical solution based on glutaraldehyde to fix the brain and all of its microscopic structures in place for future generations to decode. This is no easy task when considering there are at least 300,000 molecules in each synapse, and we have no real idea as to which ones are functionally relevant in memories or how the cell uses them for long-term memory storage. Neuroscientists can already preserve brain tissue, but the process causes a lot of damage and would be nowhere near the level needed for a human brain to be of any use in the future. This is why Nectome’s novel approach is so exciting.

The company’s ambitious aim is to preserve brains ready for a time when they can be brought back to life in some form or another. However, many scientists believe that reanimating a human brain, even a century from now, is unrealistic. We still have little sense of how the brain is connected. Even if we have this connectome, this brain map will not necessarily be enough to teach us how to extract and decipher the brain’s information. Nectome stress, however, that they are merely focusing on long-term preservation of brain tissue. They are dedicated to preserving the connections, synapses and axons that are the basis (at least as far as we know) for memory storage, and at this stage, they are not attempting to reanimate the brain.

Many questions around the specifics of memory formation remain unresolved and so it is unlikely that personality and behaviour could be identified and uploaded into a future avatar any time soon. Important questions remain frustratingly unanswered. If we think back to Chapter 1, where we explored the process of memory formation, one of the challenges of decoding memories is how small details about each memory are stored all over the brain. Connections to our emotional areas, visual areas, logical areas and so many more can make up a single memory. For example, would a single receptor or ion channel be responsible for remembering an instance when you once laughed at a joke, or for feelings of empathy you once had for a loved one, or cherishing a painting you once saw? Even more intriguing – if we understand these changes could we delete memories that we don’t want? You may want to remember a happy experience at a theme park, for example, but not the part where you throw up after a ride.

What is more plausible is that we will learn to ‘read’ some of the brain’s data at a basic level, such as what decade the memories are from, what language a person spoke or a vague description of a location previously visited. This is more challenging than it sounds because a single memory is not stored as a movie reel or a picture: instead, it consists of a collection of details from neuronal interactions, each with their own subtle changes. Decoding this connectome would require powerful AI to learn not only how the brain cells are connected, but why they are connected. To solve this problem, a wireless headset worn by the person, coupled to advanced AI, could be used for months before the brain undergoes the preservation process. This would be crucial when decoding the connectome to reanimate the brain pathways in a synthetic brain or to ‘restart’ the original organic brain.

Suppose it is possible to retrieve memories from a deceased brain. Depending on how long the brain has been dead, it may be possible to upload our memories post mortem, potentially to solve crimes using the last memories before a murder. Or perhaps we may one day download memories from living people, using a wireless device to see the truth in a criminal trial. Eventually, the consumer market will utilise this technology, and with it, create a future in which we could recall our own memories at will, using a wireless device to identify a happy memory, directions to a location once visited or a simple shopping list. 

Future neuroscience investigations and products would almost certainly move in the direction of non-invasive recording. Today, our most reliable data come from electrodes surgically implanted into the brain. Often, studies will recruit people who have electrode implants to treat epileptic seizures to minimise invasive procedures on people who do not need them. Still, we are slowly moving to a future that could detect brain changes wirelessly, as we will see below.