Remember What Never Happened?

My friend used to like to share a childhood memory of the morning the two of us saw a couple of river otters when we woke up earlier than the other campers on an overnight trip. It is a morning I remember well. But here’s the thing. The friend who liked to tell the story wasn’t even awake when I saw the otters. I actually shared that experience with another friend. False (or in this case, borrowed) memories are not rare. According to the NYT’s James Gorman: “Not only are false, or mistaken, memories common in normal life, but researchers have found it relatively easy to generate false memories of words and images in human subjects.” And now, scientists at M.I.T. say they’ve successfully created false memories in a mouse. At least they think they remember doing that.

+ Go ahead, remain silent: Could the government get a search warrant for your thoughts?