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Painful memories eased by inhaling xenon gas
It's odourless, colourless, tasteless and mostly non-reactive – but it may help you forget. Xenon gas has been shown to erase fearful memories in mice, raising the possibility that it could be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) if the results are replicated in a human trial next year.
The method exploits a neurological process known as "reconsolidation". When memories are recalled, they seem to get re-encoded, almost like a new memory. When this process is taking place, the memories become malleable and can be subtly altered.
This new research suggests that at least in mice, the reconsolidation process might be partially blocked by xenon, essentially erasing fearful memories. Among other things, xenon is used as an anaesthetic.
Frozen in fear
Edward Meloni and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston trained mice to be afraid of a sound by placing them in a cage and giving them an electric shock after the sound was played. Thereafter, if the mice heard the noise, they would become frightened and freeze.
Later, the team played the sound and then gave the mice either a low dose of xenon gas for an hour or just exposed them to normal air. Mice that were exposed to xenon froze for less time in response to the sound than the other mice.
When mice that weren't exposed to xenon were later placed in the cage where the sound and shocks were produced, they spent 70 per cent of the first two minutes frozen. But mice that had been given xenon treatment spent less than 30 per cent of the time frozen. Playing the sound cue induced more fear in the xenon-exposed mice, but they still only spent about 40 per cent of the two minutes following the sound frozen. "It was as though the animals no longer remembered to be afraid of those cues," says Meloni.
Xenon does several things in the brain, so pinning down exactly how it works could be difficult. But Meloni's team tried the gas because it blocks NMDA receptors, which are involved in memory formation and reconsolidation.
Forget and fear not
"Unlike other drugs or medications that may also block NMDA receptors involved in memory, xenon gets in and out of the brain very quickly," says Meloni. "This suggests that xenon could be given at the exact time the memory is reactivated, and for a limited amount of time, which may be key features for any potential therapy used in humans."
"This is an interesting study, which opens lots of questions for future research," says Elizabeth Phelps of New York University, who studies the interplay between memory and fear. But she warns that such work has limitations. "These are simple associative threat memories. Many people use these paradigms to study aversive memory representations that are relevant to understanding PTSD, but the evidence that this simple learning model is a sufficient model for the extensive pathology that encompasses PTSD is not great."
Nevertheless, Meloni says it's a useful guide, and helps us to understand the dysfunctional learning and memory process involved in maintaining some aspects of PTSD. He hopes to start trials on healthy humans within a year, and if that works, move on to patients who have been diagnosed with PTSD.
Journal reference: PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106189
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26123-painful-memories-eased-by-inhaling-xenon-gas.html#.VAG9KaMqPFw
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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