Just like in the plot of the movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the possibility of erasing bad memories has always been at the back of people’s minds. After all, how pleasant it would surely be to live a life full of pleasant memories, with no nightmarish events to dim our thoughts from time to time, right?
So, it is possible to erase bad memories?
This would surely be especially useful for people who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing or figuring in a rather horrific situation. Other people might want to erase the memory of an event or a person altogether for their peace of mind and to save themselves from further heartaches.
According to an informative video by AsapSCIENCE, researchers have actually found a way to delete specific memories in lab rats after determining brain functions related to memory.
Lab rats exposed electric shock while a certain sound is playing came to fear the moment this sound is played; thus, even months after this shock conditioning, they would freeze or shake in fear when the sound is played. Then, when the protein is administered while they are reliving the memory, these lab rats appear to forget about it as they would continue on their way, unconcerned, even when the previous fearsome sound is played.
Now, you might probably think the lab rats were probably brain damaged by the introduction of the protein that’s why they no longer respond to the same stimuli. Researchers made sure that was not the case by conditioning the lab rats using two different sounds. While playing both sounds, the lab rats are exposed to electric shock. Soon, they were conditioned to fear both sounds.
As with the first experiment, protein is introduced while they are reliving the memory of one sound. Afterwards, the lab rats forgot about their fear of this sound but continued to fear the other. This proves that the protein was able to erase a particular memory without affecting the brain or other memories.
Isn’t this new development amazing yet also quite scary?
Check out the video by AsapSCIENCE here for a detailed explanation:
