A Pill To Block Out The Bad Memories

There are some things everyone would rather forget – and scientists believe they may be able to help us do just that, with a pill that would block out painful memories.

In a medical breakthrough, researchers have discovered that proteins can be removed from the brain’s fear centre to wipe out traumatic memories.

Their findings could be of benefit to soldiers who have experienced distressing events and victims of violence. They could even help us get over the hurt of a painful break-up.

The U.S. research has parallels to the plot of the science fiction film Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which starred Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey. 

In the 2004 film, a couple’s past is wiped in a fictional procedure called ‘targeted
memory erasure’. For the U.S. study, scientists at Johns Hopkins University used rats to try to focus on the part of the brain that copes with fear.

They discovered a ‘window of vulnerability’ when unique receptor proteins are created in the brain as painful memories are made.

Because the proteins are unstable, they could be removed with drugs to eliminate the memory forever.

‘When a traumatic event occurs, it creates a fearful memory that can last a lifetime and have a debilitating effect on a person’s life,’ said researcher Professor Richard Huganir. 

He said his findings ‘raise the possibility of manipulating those mechanisms with drugs to enhance behavioural therapy for such conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder’.

Although the scientists used mice in the tests, they believe the results would be the same in humans. 

Breakthrough: The idea of wiping out traumatic memories has parallels with the plot of the film Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

The rodents were conditioned using electric shocks so they would fear a tone. The sound then triggered the creation of the proteins, which formed for just a day or two in the fear centre, or amygdala, of the mice’s brains.

The Johns Hopkins scientists are working on re-opening the window by artificially recalling the painful memory and using drugs to get rid of the protein.

Professor Huganir believes the window may exist in other centres of learning in the brain and the treatment may one day be used to alleviate pain or combat alcohol or drug addictions.

However, Kate Farinholt, of a mental health support group in Maryland, warned there are still many unanswered questions. ‘Erasing a memory and then everything bad built on that is an amazing idea,’ she said.

‘But completely deleting a memory is a little scary. How do you remove a memory without removing a whole part of someone’s life, and is it best to do that, considering that people grow and learn from their experiences?’

Paul Root Wolpe, of the Centre for Ethics, at Emory University in Atlanta, said: ‘Human identity is tied into memory. It creates our distinctive personalities. It’s a troublesome idea to begin to be able to manipulate that, even if for the best of motives.’