By: Sehaj Kang
Inception is a well known movie that took viewers by storm when it was released back in 2010. This blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanbe, Joseph Godon-Levitt Marion Cotillard and many others skilled actors, was an action sci-fi that brought to light the possibility of entering into one’s dreams and stealing secrets from their subconsciousness. As a result, after watching the movie, any viewer was fascinated by the captivating plot, being left pondering at the very end of the movie of what was fake and what was real. As such, this urges the question, is any of this “inception” possible in real life?
Although there is not much research done about this concept on humans, scientists have actually experimented on sleeping mice, whereby they found some interesting results. Scientists at the Industrial Physics And Chemistry Higher Educational Institution in Paris have conducted an experiment to show that they can influence mouse dreams. In the experiment, researchers placed electric signals in the form of electrodes into ‘place cells’ in the hippocampus of the mouse’s brain. They used these electrodes to send reward signals to the mice’s brain, whereby the rodents were able to create a positive association with that particular place while the mice slept. As such, later when the mice woke up, they seemed to go toward the place that had been associated with the reward signal in their dreams. “The mouse develops a goal-directed behaviour to go towards the place,” said Karim Benchenane, who led the research, in an interview with New Scientist.
As a result, this experiment provided some interesting results that can therefore let humans wonder about the truth of “inception” and how it truly affects one's mind. It is fascinating to see how scientists were almost able to insert a memory into a mouse’s brain, whereby they are driven to associate a reward with a specific place. Looking into the future however, it does not seem like this experiment will be conducted with humans since it is quite an invasive procedure to be able to insert an electrode into one’s brain. Nonetheless, there is still faith that somehow the results and method of this experiment can be applied to treat traumatic memories in victims in order to help patients. As such, until then, it is safe to say that it is best to keep all things ‘mind-control’ anchored to the Hollywood realm.
References:
Foley, K. E. (n.d.). Studies show that "inception" is possible-at least in sleeping mice. Quartz. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://qz.com/440029/studies-show-that-inception-is-possible-at-least-in-sleeping-mice/.
Tayag, Y. (2015, June 30). Scientists are incepting mouse dreams. Inverse. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.inverse.com/article/4194-scientists-are-incepting-mouse-dreams.
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