A Thought-Operated Digital Random-Access Memory.

Lee Ben-Ami,Ido Bachelet

doi:10.1155/2019/9684140

Abstract

The capacity and reliability of biological memory could be exceeded by a constantly growing flux of information to remember and operate by. Yet, our memory is fragile and could be easily impaired, and the prevalence of memory disorders is increasing in correlation with the population's mean age. As expected, auxiliary memory devices (such as writing pads and computers) are abundant but are operated indirectly using significant effort compared with biological memory. We report a working prototype of a simplified, 4 KB random-access memory (RAM) that can be written to or read from using thought and could be embedded more seamlessly than other artificial memory aids. The system analyses EEG signals to extract attention levels, which trained subjects can use to write messages into an RFID sticker, or read from it on a display. We describe basic modes of using memory by a single subject, emulate common forms of social communication using this system, and highlight new forms of social usage and allocation of memories that are linked to specific persons. This preliminary prototype highlights the technical feasibility and the possibilities of implantable thought-operated memory devices and could be developed further to provide seamless aid to people suffering from memory disorders in the near future.

Highlights

Our ability to store and retrieve information is critical for learning, social interaction, and experience and for our survival [1]
Memory disorders and dementia, which are hallmarks of medical conditions ranging from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), are a significant problem which is growing steadily [2,3,4], for which treatment is extremely limited and inadequate [5]
Most subjects were capable of achieving desired levels of attention to be able to perform reading and writing 0/1 tasks and in a reproducible manner (Figure 2(a))

Summary

Introduction

Our ability to store and retrieve information is critical for learning, social interaction, and experience and for our survival [1]. It is a fragile faculty and could be damaged or lost relatively . Our ability to create short-term or long-term memories could be severely damaged by head trauma, infarcts, diseases, and even the side effects of certain drugs [6]. Auxiliary memory devices such as a notebook or mobile phone could be lost, stolen, or damaged and are of limited reliability. Information can be stored on a database which is accessible everywhere, such as a cloud, but this access requires network connectivity, which is still largely limited and discontinuous

Objectives

Methods

Results