Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Scientists Erase Specific Memories In Mice

Posted by samzenpus on from the where's-the-cheese dept.

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."

13 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Everlasting Sunlight of the Spot-Free Brain by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How long until ethically underfunded governments decided to "offer relief" from "dangerous memories" to their political detractors? Happy shiny people, indeed.

    1. Re:Everlasting Sunlight of the Spot-Free Brain by Aranykai · · Score: 5, Funny

      Perhaps its already happening and no one remembers?

      --
      If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
    2. Re:Everlasting Sunlight of the Spot-Free Brain by JuzzFunky · · Score: 5, Funny

      Perhaps its already happening and no one remembers?

      --
      Unexpect the expected!
    3. Re:Everlasting Sunlight of the Spot-Free Brain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Part of what makes war a "last resort" option is the horror that it causes. If we removed the pain of war, perhaps it would become far to easy to wage it.

      Unfortunately, this has already happened. There was a time when the leaders didn't "send" soldiers off to war, they "led" them. Today, no leader will ever see a battlefield, so the pain and horror of war no longer deters leaders from starting wars.

      War hasn't been a "last resort" for a very long time. All too often it's the first resort.

  2. There's really only one question to be asked. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Funny

    When do I get my own flashy-little-memory-messer-upper-thing?

  3. erase undesirable memories by cosmocain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    [...]erase undesirable memories[...]

    undesirable for whom? While this might positively applicaple for e.g. victims of rape there are tons of possible missuses which really should be feared.

    1. Re:erase undesirable memories by PotatoFiend · · Score: 5, Funny

      I tell you where else this would be a positive thing - in erasing the memory of good books/films/video games, so that you can experience them all again as if for the first time. I would love to be able to re-experience the magic of reading some of my favorite fiction as if for the first time.

      Holly: I've just finished reading everything. I've now read everything that's been written by anyone ever.
      Lister: Would you go away?
      Holly: You know what the worst book ever written by anyone ever was?
      Lister: I don't care!
      Holly: "Football, It's a Funny Old Game" by Kevin Keegan.
      ...snip...
      Holly: Well, only if you're not busy. Would you mind erasing some of my memory banks?
      Lister: What for?
      Holly: Well, if you erase all the Agatha Christie novels from my memory bank, I can read 'em again tonight.
      Lister: How do I do it?
      Holly: Just type, "Holmem. Password override. The novels Christie, Agatha." Then press erase.
      Lister: I've done it.
      Holly: Done what?
      Lister: Erased Agatha Christie.
      Holly: Who's she, then?
      Lister: Holly, you just asked me to erase all Agatha Christie novels from your memory.
      Holly: Why should I do that? I've never heard of her.
      Lister: You've never heard of her because I've just erased her from your smegging memory.
      Holly: What'd you do that for?
      Lister: You asked me to!
      Holly: When?
      Lister: Just now!
      Holly: I don't remember this.

      --
      "Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power." -- James Madison
  4. Goatse by mfh · · Score: 5, Funny

    undesirable for whom? While this might positively applicaple for e.g. victims of rape there are tons of possible missuses which really should be feared.

    All memory of Goatse could be erased! That has to count for SOMETHING.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:Goatse by cosmocain · · Score: 5, Insightful

      All memory of Goatse could be erased! That has to count for SOMETHING.

      Jup. It does.

      Being shocked by goatse the same amount as if seeing it for the first time. Great. Hooray.

  5. Its not science... by rodney+dill · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...its the Haitian

    --

    Use your head, can't you, use your head,
    You're on earth, there's no cure for that     - S. Beckett
  6. Re:Lots of potential uses by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 5, Funny

    I could get excited about The Phantom Menace all over again!

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  7. Self-amputation? by Big+Nemo+'60 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe I am just grouchy but...

    Even for traumatic memories, I would choose healing and closure over forgetfulness anytime. I may like it or not, but I am the sum of all the things I experienced, and I am not looking forward to self-amputation.

    On the other hand, I understand that achieving healing and closure is a very inefficient process - just being able to erase unpleasant experiences would probably set us free to pursue more worthy achievements, like making the current global economic breakdown ever worse...

    Again, sorry for ranting.

    --
    In the long run we are all dead. - John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946)
  8. Re:so now when us paranoids rant wbout your memori by Xest · · Score: 5, Funny

    You are the scariest person I've ever encountered on Slashdot, that is an achievement beyond all other achievements.

    After reading your posts I see why people would want the option to have traumatic memories erased.