Found a way to erase human memory

Removing memory has long been a fascinating episode in sci-fi films. However, Swedish researchers now believe they have made a breakthrough in making this process a reality.

According to the Daily Mail, the research team from Uppsala University (Sweden) announced that for the first time in the world, they have found a way to erase the newly formed emotional memories in the human brain. The whole work has just been published in Science magazine.

When a person perceives something, a long-term memory is created with the support of the consolidation process, based on the formation of proteins in the brain. When people remember something, memories become unstable for a short time and then re-stabilized thanks to a new consolidation process.

'In other words, we don't remember what happened initially, but instead "remember the mind" the last time we thought about what happened , "the researchers said. .

By breaking the process of consolidation, the team found they could change what was remembered.

In their experiments, the team showed volunteers a neutral image, and shocked them. In this way, the picture becomes an object of fear in research subjects, meaning that a fearful memory has been formed.

In order to activate fearful memories, the team showed volunteers the image without an electric shock.

Next, the team interfered with the process of reinforcing the memories of the subjects by repeatedly reviewing the original image. As a result, in the brains of volunteers, the fear they once associated with the image dissipates and the memory is neutralized. The brain scan results also show that traces of the original memories have disappeared from the brain region that often store scary memories.

'Our findings may be a breakthrough in the study of memory and fear. They can ultimately help improve treatments for millions of people suffering from mental crisis such as fear, post-traumatic stress and horrific accidents , 'said Thomas Ågren, head of research. strong.