Re: A few questions about memory

 I don't have any data for you on regression therapy, but I can speak to 
your first question, regarding "thought-data." The answer, currently, is 
no. The eye surgery in question can restore sight to patients whose lesion 
or damage is in the optic nerve or eye itself. At this level, while there 
are complex things going on with receptive field dynamics, lateral 
inhibition, and the several layers of processing that occur prior to the 
"signal" reaching the cerebral cortex, what's going on is basically a 
visual stimulus is being coded into a basic neural response. Once that 
basic signal reaches the thalamus, things start getting increasingly 
complex, and once you start working at the cortical level, the circuitry 
becomes even more staggering in its layering and looping.

Recognition of objects, fusion of input from different eyes, location of 
objects in space, and other functions that one normally takes for granted 
in visual processing all take place in the cortex and involve extensive 
interplay between a multitude of complex circuits. What the artificial eye 
intends to do is merely give an initial signal where there was none 
previously, and it's not a high-level signal.

Our current research shows us the general parts of the brain that are 
involved with the recognition of familiar faces, or those that are 
involved with integration of data from the two eyes. We can't stick 
electrodes into our brain and look at the patterns and say, "this pattern 
in this neuron means that the subject is recognizing a chair." The 
circuitry involved in such a recognition is very complex and involves 
hundreds if not thousands of neurons located in different places around 
the brain.

Thoughts are even more complex and their circuitry less well understood. I 
wouldn't fear the Men in White Coats reading your mind with electrodes 
anytime soon.

If you are interested in the circuitry that underlies visual processing, I 
can recommend a few textbooks:
    One of the best introductory neuroscience textbooks I know is 
Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, by Bear, Connors, and Paradiso.
    For a slightly higher-level discussion of the visual system in 
particular, I recommend Biology of Vision by McIlwain
    And when you're ready to move on to the Big Leagues of Neuroscience, 
two textbooks are considered to be The Bible depending on whom you ask:
    Principles of Neural Science by Kandel, Schwartz, and Jessell; or
    Fundamentals of Neuroscience by Zigmond et al.

All of these books have been published in the past three years or so and 
are current.

Hope this helps!
:)