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Black box recorders are a common feature in aircraft. They sit there keeping track of everything that is happening. Then, if something goes wrong the information can be reviewed to piece together exactly what happened and form a view of the events that may otherwise have been lost.
Now the Pentagon is attempting to develop a similar system for use in humans, and in particular soldiers who have suffered brain damage. If they could be fitted with a black box in their brain, then it may be possible to trigger memories surrounding a traumatic event and overcome memory loss quickly and easily.
As you’d expect, DARPA has been tasked with looking into this area through its Defense Sciences department. We still know very little about how our memory works, but progress is being made through brain stimulation devices such as that developed by Medtronic for helping people with Parkinson’s disease.
The solution DARPA and the Pentagon wants developed takes the form of an implantable device that can both record and stimulatebrain activity. Anyone submitting a proposal for such a device needs to detail every step of how it would work, including the surgical procedure to attach it, power requirements once fitted, and how much space it would take up and how much it would weigh.