Scientists Erase Specific Memories in Mice

Scientists Erase Specific Memories in Mice

Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- It sounds like science fiction, by scientists say it might one day be possible to erase undesirable memories from the brain, selectively and safely.


Using a complex genetic approach, U.S. and Chinese researchers believe they have done just that in mice, but the feat is far from being tested on humans.


Study co-author Joe Z. Tsien, co-director of the Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, says the "work reveals a molecular mechanism of how can be done quickly and without doing damage to brain cells."


The finding is published in the Oct. 23 issue of Neuron.


Humans plagued by painful memories have long wished for a way to eject them from the brain. The concept was the premise of the popular 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which two former lovers pay a "memory-erasure" service to expunge the unhappy affair from their minds.


To explore the possibility of safely carving away bits of memory, the study authors first focused on the activity of a common protein found only in the brain, called CaMKII.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20081022/hl_hsn/scientistserasespecificmemoriesinmice

Love the way we work together with the Chinese . . . on helpful projects!:evilfrown:

recalling facts gets in their way.

Our memories, even the most painful memories, make us who we are. I have mine and as much as I dislike to remember them. I am who I am because of them. Even in the case of criminals I find this really really unsavory. Especially in the hands of criminals I find this REALLY REALLY REALLY UNSAVORY. Imagine a way for a government to do "proper reprogramming"...HOW VILE.

I cannot say I find this ethical at all at first glance.

They are already spying on Americans.

Dangerous business erasing memories.

Holocaust? What Holocaust? :shrug:

they are very very good at forgetting inconvient things...like facts

The damn TV set. The greatest form of brain washing ever invented.

Bush fanatics?

Fuck trying to erase memories. It would marginalize pain and suffering, and hence, the human experience.

Why not torture, if they could forget it? Why not rape, it it could be erased? Why not cause masses to starve and suffer, if everyone surviving can be cleared of the pain?

The war-torn soldier reminds the world how terrible war is. Would we have the same conception of war without him?

Memories, the good and bad, our a product of we create. They are meant to be remembered and told, such that we may learn from them, and evaluate what we may create in the future.

This is dangerous territory that can alter the very existence and humanity we hold dear.

Adapting to life is one thing, controlling it is another.

"among mice intentionally bred to overproduce the molecule."

You know, we bitch about intelligent design, and then we go and stop evolution.

"After exposing the mice to emotionally powerful stimulations, such as a mild shock to their paws, the scientists then observed how well or poorly the animals subsequently recalled the particular trauma as their brain's expression of CaMKII was manipulated up and down.

When the brain was made to overproduce CaMKII at the exact moment the mouse was prodded to retrieve the traumatic memory, the memory wasn't just blocked, it appeared to be fully erased."

So that memory was "undesirable"? Sounds more like the people doing the testing find the learning process of objects "undesirable".

Stop touching the hot stove and burning yourself...except in the name of science. We'll just manipulate your brain, and you won't even remember why your arm is all crispy. Go ahead, touch the stove...

Just a quick stop at the corner memory erase station, and that ugly breakup is no more?

No more blues music?
No more heartbroken country music songs?


I'll stick to the alcohol.

Because military tech is usually 20yrs ahead of civ advances. It's likely they have this available to them for use on humans.

:scared:

Please tell me what great advances in psychology, fundamental physics, etc that the military has shat out over the decades? The military doesn't generally "do" fundamental science. It funds people to take fundamental science to it's nasty weaponised conclusion.

Both of which they would be interested in and throw funding at- ESPECIALLY for such an application.

This sort of research is what I concentrated in in college. Some of my fellow students went the more "tell me how you're feeling" route, but understanding how memory and the brain works on a molecular/chemical/electrical level is the discipline of psych known as Neuroscience. It then breaks down into other subdisciplines like Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive, Structural, etc.

Chemistry is a fundamental science that depends on physics and mathematics. Psych depends on chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics, and to some degree sociology. Though you could correctly say that everything is the study of physics and mathematics, it is still useful and accurate to differentiate the various fields of study.

Definition here:

"Neuroscience
A branch of psychology, also called physiological psychology. Neuroscience is the study of the functioning of the nervous system which includes the structures and functioning of the brain and its relationship to behaviour."

from http://www.inspiritive.com.au/glossary.htm

Anyways... my point is that the precise mechanisms of higher order memory have only recently been worked out by drawing on many different lines of research. Understanding exactly which proteins, which neurons, under which conditions, using which genes, etc has taken thousands of experiments, and developments in technology (like the pet scan, metabolite analysis, drug studies, and on and on and on).

At this point is when the government would likely step in with funding to develop military applications.

Sure, perhaps one day we can erase targeted memories. Does that mean it is the right or ethical thing to do? I think not. People are formed by their memories, you take that base away and a person's psyche could collapse.

This is such stupidity.

You could sell the memory of your first kiss; that trip to Hawaii; your wedding, etc.

The person who bought the memory would have it as if it was their own and your memory of said event would vanish.

People would get disparate and sell off everything. Great story.

and illegal things I'm sure.