Pills to create happy memories to cure depression

[Vonnegutjunky]

http://www.scientifica.uk.com/neurowire/671-turning-on-happy-memories-with-optogenetics-can-reverse-depression?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=neuroscientistnews2

 

 

Ridiculous.

[InvisibleUnless]

Brain Candy! --- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116768/

 

"the cells in the hippocampus that were storing the memory of this experience were labelled with a light-sensitive protein which when activated causes the neurons to fire" ...this article does not make any scientific sense at all.

 

the study itself can be found here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v522/n7556/full/nature14514.html it basically says "frying your brain can make you happy"...not exactly revolutionary thinking.  i cant access the full text of the study, but clearly there would be something dysfunctional and damaging about unnaturally and continually stimulating pathways.  it is a bit interesting, but mostly obvious; that is the nature of most published materials, though, since demonstrating anything truly spectacular or unprecedented takes a lot of access to interactions for observation.

[Vonnegutjunky]

I felt it was just another ridiculous thing for the pharmaceutical industry to market -

 

And it seems such an idiotic leap from mice to humans -

 

Additionally aome individuals who are depressed have very few, if any, positive memories.

[InvisibleUnless]

insofar as i read, they do not seem to differentiate between active areas associated with the experience of and reaction to memory from "memory itself" (which is not really a specific and localized phenomenon).  that lack of distinction already makes this sort of thing rather suspect, and the approach seems to basically be desiring to overstimulate 'positive' brain functionality inasmuch as they can separate it from any other brain functioning by trying to match patterns induced in particular situations.

 

this is a recipe for brain damage: burning things out, damaging pathways, altering longterm functionality.  i dont really know jack about neuroscience right now, but aside from the obviousness of those conclusions, a very specific concern one could outline is the NMDA receptor, which plays a role in memory.  hyperstimulation of the NMDA receptors has ties to neurological diseases like parkinsons and alzheimers, amongst other significant, impairing, and potentially permanent dysfunctions.  (NMDA antagonists are clinically considered as treating parkinsons and other conditions.)

 

 

also, somehow my link was broken above in that first response, so if someone can edit the hyperlink to read what the verbatim text is, people will be able to directly click through to the article.