Many of us have watched the romantic drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It tells the story of a man and a woman who were once in love, but after a series of quarrels they decided to end their relationship and erase the memory of each other in order to forever delete this page from their lives.
Is the idea of changing memories so fantastic?
Despite the fact that today this film is considered a work with elements of fiction, in the foreseeable future its genre component may be revised. Scientists report that changing memories may soon become a very real reality.
Most recently, neuroscientists in Canada and the United States have found that, although different types of memory are formed in the human brain, the same neurons are used, but the processes in them are completely different. This discovery could lead to the development of highly effective treatments for negative psychological conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and causeless anxiety.
How anxious memories work in the brain
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Memories of negative events, scientists say, can trigger uncontrollable anxiety attacks in a person. To test this hypothesis, American and Canadian researchers from Columbia University and McGill University analyzed the neurons of the Alysian molluscs.
Memory is known to be stored in neurons. It becomes long-term due to synapses - a kind of chemical "bridges" that unite neurons into groups. Memories of events in the course of which our body was harmed (for example, experiencing beatings or touching a hot surface) is encoded into the so-called associative memory, and the connections between neurons at the same time amplify. types of memory, although the same neurons are used, the processes in them are completely different. This discovery could lead to the development of highly effective treatments for negative psychological conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and causeless anxiety.
How anxious memories work in the brain
Memories of negative events, scientists say, can trigger uncontrollable anxiety attacks in a person. To test this hypothesis, American and Canadian researchers from Columbia University and McGill University analyzed the neurons of the Alysian molluscs.
Memory is known to be stored in neurons. It becomes long-term due to synapses - a kind of chemical "bridges" that unite neurons into groups. Memories of events during which our body was harmed (for example, experiencing beatings or touching a hot surface) is encoded into the so-called associative memory, and the connections between neurons are strengthened - a synapse appears.
The experience accumulated by a living creature, however, is not always routine. For example, if you are standing at the stove and an unexpected call at your door, you can accidentally touch a hot burner, and in the future such calls will invariably be associated with this injury. And many people, hearing a dog barking nearby, immediately experience an unpleasant feeling of fear, as if stray dogs attack them again.
Even if you unconsciously touched a hot stove or just felt a false fear of attack, neurons in your brain unfortunately still record this information. And such "unnecessary" memory sometimes creates significant inconvenience for people, acting as a trigger for anxiety. Many individuals suffer from "unnecessary" memory from PTSD. For example, a war survivor may experience intense feelings of panic when he hears a salute, fireworks, or even explosions from a car's exhaust pipe.
Formation of random and long-term memory
The hypothesis of synaptic markers that convert random memory into stable and long-term memory was proposed back in 1997. True, then scientists considered that the biochemical processes that are behind the formation of long-term and short-term memories have the same properties, therefore, it is impossible to distinguish between these processes.
However, researchers in Canada and the United States have now determined that synaptic markings in neurons are still different. For example, experiments with mollusks have shown that the strength of the connection of synoptic contacts depends on the production of two different types of proteins called kinases: kinase M Apl III and kinase M Apl I. If you achieve selective blocking of one such kinase, then this will actually erase a certain type of memory from the brain. concerning an event, for example, an unpleasant one.
Of course, so far we are only talking about synaptic connections in mollusk neurons. However, experts say that vertebrates, including humans, have very similar kinases for memory formation. It is possible that in the near future a person who has been subjected, for example, to violence, will be able to drink one single pill, and all negative associations associated with this unpleasant experience will be erased. The individual, of course, will remember what happened to him, but the experience will not make him afraid of dark streets, random passers-by, solo walks, etc.