It may sound like science fiction, but engineers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are working with neurosurgeons at UCLA to develop an implantable neural device that has the ability to record and stimulate neurons within the brain to help restore memory. From the biology side, Lab research engineer Angela Tooker says they’re not yet certain if they can distinguish between restoring short-term memory or long-term memory.

"But since injuries in the brain are region-specific, generally most of these people are losing both. I mean, the ultimate goal would be to restore all of it so that all of the memories that you’ve had, you can now get back, because most of the times the memories themselves are not damaged. It’s just the pathways to access them that have been damaged and if we can bridge those, we can get them all back."

Tooker says these devices may one day help patients who lose memory due to traumatic brain injury, epilepsy or Alzheimer’s disease.

"Implanting these in humans is going to be the ultimate test of does it work; there’s a lot of strong evidence right now that says, yes, it does work. But when you’re talking memory, that’s the ultimate test. "