Science may now help patients erase their certain memories whenever they feel indifferent. So we can’t say that our memories only remain in our brains. It can now be removed from there with the help of developed neuroscience. Bad memories can harshly affect the daily life of the post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients due to episodic memories of particular places. However scientists have been able to remove specific memories from the mind of rats, mice and fish. Moreover, they have been able to prove a 40-year-old theory about how periodic memories are stored and recalled in the brain. The study was done under the leadership of Kazumasa Tanaka and Brian Wiltgen of University of California.
Scientists formed a theory that the process of making and recalling memories can be facilitated by using specific proteins. They first experimented the theory on fish. In the research, they provide fish medicines that stopped the proteins from being generated. As a result, the fish was not able to recall what happened after the protein-inhibitors were administered. From this study, they have been able to find a way to delete long-term memories.
The memories start changing physically in your brain, whenever you give effort to retrieve them. The more you attempt to retrieve old memories, the less correct they happen to be because the data is recreated every single time when you struggle to recall them. It is already given that the protein-inhibitor can prevent you from retrieving particular memories, because those memories might be deleted – just like how it is already tested on fish.
The theory was exercised on lab mice. The mice were kept in a chamber where a specific tone was played prior to giving an electric shock through the floor. The mice stored the event combining the chamber, sound and an electric shock. Even after a month, if the mice was placed in the same chamber and the same sound was also played, he would get feared and show tension. But when the mice was shifted to another chamber and played the same sound after administering the protein-inhibitor, no fear was seen on the face of the mice. The fear reaction was seen again, when the mice was shifted to the old chamber.
The study revealed that scientists have been able to delete the selective memories of the mice (the memory combined with sound). However the memory of the shocking chamber was unbroken. The researchers who discovered this information believe that in the future the patients suffered with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could be treated using the same method.
I was a science student, but later I had to change the stream due to my personal reasons and chose commerce to complete my further education. However, I am still more interested to cover science topics. This topic attracted my attention because such a research is being conducted which later can treat the patients suffered with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is really interesting for me and I tried my best to explain it in short and easy way, so that the readers can understand it easily. I hope they will show interest towards this scientific invention.