How would you feel if you could look at something once and then remember it forever? You won’t ever have to ask for directions again or have to go back to certain drawings again. A group of scientists has managed to isolate a protein that can boost (on an exponential level) the user’s ability to remember what they see.
A team of Spanish researchers has reported in Science that they might have stumbled across the substance that could become the ultimate memory booster. The group was researching on a poorly-understood region of the visual cortex. During the research, they discovered that if the production of a protein called RGS-14 was boosted in the particular area of the visual cortex in mice, the animal’s capability of remembering objects that they had seen was affected dramatically.
Mice that had RGS-14 boost were able to remember objects they had seen for about two months, whereas the same mice without RGS-14 boost would be able to remember these objects for about an hour only. It was concluded that the region of the visual cortex, layer six of region V2, has been tasked with the creation of visual memories. Once this region has been removed, mice are no longer capable of remembering any object that they see.
If this protein provides positive results for humans, the results could be mind-blowing. The researchers stated in their paper that this discovery could find its use as a memory enhancer. We shall find out more as the research progresses, till then fingers crossed for the time when you need only take a pill and remember all that you see.