Restoring Active Memory Project Adds Task and Patient Data to Publicly Available Human Brain Dataset

The Restoring Active Memory project run by the University of Pennsylvania has just released human intracranial brain recording and stimulation data for 102 new patients and a new spatial-navigation task developed by researchers at Columbia University. The total RAM dataset now includes such recordings from 251 patients and more than 1,100 experimental sessions, making it the largest publicly available dataset of its kind.

The ultimate aim of Restoring Active Memory, or RAM, is to develop a fully implantable device that can electrically stimulate the brain to improve memory function. The program’s immediate goal is to deliver new treatments for those who have experienced a traumatic brain injury, such as veterans returning from combat. In the long term, such therapies could also help patients with a range of ailments, from Alzheimer’s to dementia.

Along the way, the DARPA-funded project, led by psychology professor Michael Kahana and researcher Daniel Rizzuto, director of cognitive neuromodulation, has made crucial strides in brain function and memory.

Earlier this year, the team published a paper in Current Biology showing for the first time that electrical stimulation delivered when memory was predicted to fail could improve memory function in the human brain. That same stimulation generally became disruptive when electrical pulses arrived during periods of effective memory function.

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