Storing Memories in Your Synapses

Current drugs, even. But I would recommend just changing your neurons with your own mind — that’s a cool ability humans have!

See, for example, NOVA’s “Memory Hackers” episode: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kvpX3VZMuyM

Modulation of plasticity is incredibly easy, but the missing link is how this translates into memory, information, behavior etc.

It is already possible with viral vectors (in mice). The CREB experiments increase excitability, ltp etc.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04445-9

the CCR5 receptors (which was modified in chinese human babies) affect plasticity & memory :

https://elifesciences.org/articles/20985

it is also possible with optogenetics to gate plasticity, erasing and reenabling memory engrams

http://sci-hub.tw/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41583-018...

its not clear how increased plasticity is beneficial though (these experiments are mainly aiming to erase memories, like PTSD memories)

Current drugs. Nerve Growth Factor was discovered by Rita Levi-Montalcini in 1952. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1986. She took a small dose of NGF everyday, starting in the late 1950s and lasting till her death in 2012, at the age of 103. Of the many impressive things about her, there is the fact that she kept working till she was 101. Was she helped by the NGF? Further research is needed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Levi-Montalcini