On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti How to change a memory
Feb 19, 2026
Steve Ramirez, a neuroscientist and BU professor who studies how memories form and change. He discusses locating memories in the brain, activating and modifying them with tools like optogenetics, clinical uses for depression and PTSD, ethical risks of editing recollections, and how memory shapes identity and healing.
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Memory Is Distributed And Multifaceted
- Memory is the brain's way of absorbing experience and making it accessible later.
- Steve Ramirez calls memory distributed across senses, emotions, and brain regions, not a single location.
Memory Lets Us Time-Travel To Plan
- Memories help us simulate and plan for the future by remixing past 'building blocks'.
- Ramirez frames memory as enabling anticipation and better decision-making.
Lasers Turn Memories On In Mice
- In 2012 Ramirez and Xu Liu labeled and lit up memory cells in mice using optogenetics.
- They turned a memory 'on' with a laser and the mice immediately behaved as if recalling it.