June• 2018 | 93READER’S DIGESTWhat does the future hold for
false-memory science? Developments
in optogenetics, a technique that mod-
iies brain cells to make them sensitive
to light, and then uses laser beams to
target speciic memories, have already
successfully implanted false mem-
ories in mice. Researcher Susumu
Tonegawa, a neuroscientist at the
RIKEN-MIT Centre for Neural Circuit
Genetics, hopes future findings will
help to alert legal experts as to the
unreliability of eyewitness accounts.
Shaw explains that optogenetic
research is now going a step further,
with ground-breaking applications.
“My French colleagues are doing some
of that work on humans,
trying to cut out trauma
from the memories of
veterans. So in extreme
cases, there are poten-
tial future applications
for severe PTSD. It’s
very invasive, though,
as you’re physically
modifying the brain, so
it’s a last resort.”
hese rapid develop-
ments are raising a host
of moral concerns.
“he idea that techniques could be
developed that would allow the pow-
erful manipulation of memory raises
a host of tricky ethical issues,” says
French. “here are no easy answers,
but it would be wise for such issues
to be discussed by everyone – not
just scientists.ourselvesatthecentreoftheaction
andIthinkthatexplainsalotabout
the so-called Mandela Effect. We
allknewMandelahadalongsen-
tenceandmanyassumedhe’ddiein
prison. Perhaps some people thought
about it, imagined it happening and
subsequently became convinced.
“False memories can arise without
anyone deliberately implanting them.
Ta ke t he ‘c ra sh i ng-memor ies’ pa ra-
digm. Studies have shown that if you
ask a random sample of British peo-
pleiftheysawthefootageofPrincess
Diana’s car crashing in Paris, about
50 per cent will say they did, when no
such footage exists.”
Perhaps another ex-
planationisthatthose
who experience the
MandelaEfectarepar-
ticularly susceptible to
false memories. As a
paranormal psychol-
ogy specialist, French
hasworkedonmany
studies examining con-
nectionsbetweenabe-
lief in the paranormal
andapredispositionto
form false memories.
“Anything that’s likely to make you
confuse something you’ve imagined
with something that really happened
makes you susceptible to false memo-
ries,” he explains. “Fantasy proneness,
being creative, having a vivid imagina-
tion or simply a tendency to be away
PHOTO: BORIS BREUERwith the fairies.”
Future findings
may help to
alert legal
experts as to the
unreliability of
eyewitness
accounts