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Scientists Erase Specific Memories In Mice
Ostracus writes "It sounds like science fiction, but scientists say it might one day be possible to erase undesirable memories from the brain, selectively and safely. After exposing mice to emotionally powerful stimuli, 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."
I look forward to the removal of goatse, tubgirl and 2 Girls 1 Cup from my poor tortured mind.
Ugh. I can't believe that I'm bothered enough to comment on this.
But it's Patrick Star, who is a starfish. Not Patrick Starfish.
The full journal article is available free from Neuron right now via ScienceDirect, for those who prefer to read what the study actually says versus what the popsci reporter decided to interpret it as.
"I defy the second law of thermodynamics."
"The hell you do. Get back in the box."
I used to be into BMX bike riding, I stress "used to". Anyway, one day at the track I was riding, went off a jump, lost control and came down on my face. I was wearing a helmet but NOT a full face helmet.
Anyway, I lost that day almost completely from my memory banks. I can't remember going to work or being in a bad mood there (apparently I was exceptionally grouchy... serves me right) I can't remember going to the track and most disturbing to me, I cannot remember the jump I did or what exactly went wrong. Some kids said they saw me and told my friend about it. They said when I went off the jump I lost my balance mid-air and started coming down wrong. I landed on my face and put my two front teeth through my upper lip, knocked myself out cold and actually wet myself (pissed my pants).
My girlfriend at the time came to the track and took me to the hospital where I got stitched up. So that day was like I said, almost completely wiped from my memory. Oh and incidentally, when asked at the ER what year it was, I was convinced it was 2002 when in fact it was 2003.
Anyway, just my antectodal story, and after that I rode again but my wheels were shot and I lost all courage to try and do jumps, etc. I still ride but it's *chill style* and the most I'll do is jump little curb cuts. What irritates me most about it is NOT remembering what exactly went wrong. Yes those kids telling my friend helped but losing my balance mid-air? Just never happened to me up till that point so it never sat well with my mind. Usually when you bail, you KNOW what you did or were doing wrong (in this activity anyway) but since I couldn't remember it I was never the same on the bike thereafter.
and as a follow up -- most air fighters do not get PTSD because the dont see the people they are killing-- just as you said
here is an study [from National Institute of Health] on the factors that cause PTSD http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18226287