Scientists are convinced that they can help people forget the traumatic events of the past with a pill capable of erasing memories that cause suffering in the brain.
This discovery will be useful for soldiers who have experienced many painful events and victims of horrific violence, can even help us overcome the pain of a break. tear heart.
Forget the traumatic events of the past with a pill capable of erasing memories that cause suffering in the brain.(Photos are illustrative: internet)
The aforementioned scenario is similar to the scenario of the science fiction film " Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind " ("The eternal sunbeam of pure soul ") - the film was released in 2004, with the main cast , Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey, as a couple whose past has been erased.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University (USA) have used the mouse to focus on studying the part of the brain dealing with fear.
They discovered a " window of injury " when specific receptor proteins were created in the brain in the form of painful memories established.
They gave healthy mice an electric shock and so they became scared of a sound. This sound then stimulates the production of proteins formed in a day or two in the feared center (amygdala) in the mouse's brain.
Because proteins are inherently unstable, they can be removed with pills and thus erase this painful memory forever.
The idea of wiping out painful memories was shown in the science fiction film "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind".
" When a distressing event takes place, it creates a fearsome memory that can last a lifetime and works to degrade a person's life ," said Professor Richard Huganir of the research group.
He also said that his discoveries " provide the ability to allow control of those mechanisms with drugs to improve behavioral therapy for diseases such as stress disorder due to suffering. "
Although the team experimented on mice, they believed that the results would be the same for humans.
However, Kate Farinholt , of the Mental Health advocacy group in Maryland, warned that there are still many unanswered questions. " Removing a memory and all the bad things created from it is an amazing idea ," she said.
" But completely erasing a memory is a bit scary. How can you remove a memory without removing the whole part of one's life, and is it the best thing to do when considering how people grow up and learn from their own experiences? "
Paul Root Wolpe, of the Ethics Center at Emory University in Atlanta, said: " The identity of people is associated with memory. It creates our own character. It's an idea to cause trouble to can begin to control that problem, even if it's for the best motives. "