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Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the also-the-memory-that-you-paid-your-bill-already dept.

Al writes "Technology Review has an article about a common drug that seems to 'delete' painful memories related to a fearful experience. Experiments carried out by neuro-scientists at Emory University show that propranolol, a drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure, can suppress the emotional part of a fearful memory. The results, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest a new way to treat anxiety disorders. In recent years, scientists have discovered that the simple act of remembering a past experience requires that the memory be consolidated once again. And both animal research and some human studies have shown that during re consolidation, long-term memories — once thought to be fairly stable — can be more easily meddled with."

20 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. A boon to higher education by mbstone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now they can make money re-educating the same students they educated before! Think of the student loan debt!

    1. Re:A boon to higher education by lucif3r · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nice, now I can touch the stove again!

    2. Re:A boon to higher education by flyingsquid · · Score: 4, Funny

      You guys should not be joking about this. Deleting painful memories is an incredibly dangerous thing, as I can tell you from experience, and in the long run it will only make things worse than they were before. The reason why it's so dangerous is because... ah hell, I can't remember. But anyway, I'm pretty sure it's a bad idea.

    3. Re:A boon to higher education by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'll stick to the old methods, I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  2. PropranoLOL by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Any relation to propofol, a.k.a. milk of amnesia?

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    1. Re:PropranoLOL by reverseengineer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Nope, propofol (2,6-diisopropyl phenol) likely works by increasing the response to inhibitory neurotransmitters, and acts as an anesthetic. Propanolol is a non-selective beta-blocker, which blocks the beta-adrenergic receptors (receptors for epinephrine and norepinephrine). As the summary notes, the most common pharmaceutical use for this is to lower blood pressure, which it does by preventing the release of renin. Its effects on memory are completely coincidental to those on blood pressure.

      In the brain, a part of the brainstem known as the locus ceruleus is the site of norepinephrine synthesis, and it is activated by stress to send norepinephrine to the amygdalae, the brain's "emotional memory association" centers. It is in the amygdalae that memories are associated with emotions, with the ultimate result being that it is easier to form long term memories of experiences that associated with strong emotions. In blocking norepinephrine transmission to the amygdala, beta-blockers most likely are acting to uncouple the connection between a stressor and its associated memory, such that the brain no longer considers it important enough to keep in long term memory.

      --
      "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
    2. Re:PropranoLOL by reverseengineer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oh, most definitely- it's still an off-label use of the drug in the US, but people are certainly taking beta-blockers to treat performance anxiety, as well as to prevent nervous fine motor tics. At the most recent Summer Olympics, one of the medalists in pistol shooting had his medals taken away after testing positive for propranolol.

      --
      "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
  3. Drugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    propranolol

    So this will turn your fearful memories into hilarious ones?

  4. And this is a Good thing!? by sjvn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You know one does learn to avoid making many mistakes in life--I really cant fly, fire is pretty but it does hurt--by pain.

    Besides just the idea of tampering with memory being a *bad* thing, the notion of fooling with one of the fundamental ways we learn strikes me as a really bad idea.

    Soma anyone?

    Steven

    1. Re:And this is a Good thing!? by woolpert · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You speak as if our brain's software is without bugs. If you had seen the suffering and disablement that intense, often unreasonable, emotional pain can inflict on some people even years after the traumatic event, perhaps you would be less dismissive of an attempt to patch this particular bug.
      Expose X people to a horrific event and a high percentage of them will show the ability to get over it. There is that outlying group, however, who (despite honest effort and therapy) seem to have an overactive emotional memory system which prevents them from ever coming to terms with what happened.

    2. Re:And this is a Good thing!? by bipbop · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're right, to an extent. Living without pain is very hard--some individuals born without the ability have hellish lives as a result. But sometimes, pain teaches us lessons that aren't so good, like "I should never touch anyone for the rest of my life," because touching is so strongly associated with pain. How people with this sort of thing varies from one individual to the next, but for someone with a deeply ingrained irrational fear based on some painful experience, maybe removing the memory could be a good thing.

      Another way of looking at it is this: if you are raped, and the idea of sex is permanently distorted in your mind by the memory, then this memory is a punishment for something that isn't your fault, haunting you and messing up your life to this day. Wouldn't it be a good thing to allow the *option* of removing this weight from one's shoulders?

    3. Re:And this is a Good thing!? by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny

      On the other hand, previous experiences suggest this might not be such a bad thing. It didn't actually do much damage last year when a secret biowarfare lab accidentally released the Mnemonivirus and we had a global Amnesia Plague. Remember that?

    4. Re:And this is a Good thing!? by woolpert · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So in an attempt to create a "quick fix" you are advocating the permission for people to bury their heads in the sand and let life pass them by because they got hurt and don't want to feel bad?

      As I previously said, there is a group of people who, despite honest effort and therapy, do not recover from traumatic events. There is no support for a quick fix anywhere in my earlier comments. Stop attempting to straw-man this.

      I think you ought to either drop the programming analogy or realize that there are no "bugs" in our "software." Humans can't "upgrade their firmware" to overcome "short-sighted design" or development. They either adapt at a conscious level or a subconscious level; the former has a much more obvious affect on their abilities, while the latter is harder to actualize, but can be just as potent

      Bullshit. There are clearly innate and instinctual functions of our brain our higher processes wish they could override. We have an onion of a brain with layer upon layer of functionality, but also layer upon layer of cruft.
      Flinching when you know the person isn't going to hit you. Accelerated heartbeat when you know it is only a movie. Goosebumps when you know you have no hair to fluff. Even the annoying sensation of cold when you know you are able to maintain core temperature. All of these are examples of where, despite conscious will, our base programming still rules.

      It sounds to me that you are letting people suffer through ignorance and allow them to experience the same things later, which they will then also need to be treated for.

      You're assuming these people can learn. I'm arguing there is a class of case where normal brain function has been so disrupted by an overactive response to an emotional event that learning from the event is impossible. Despite your insistent wish to believe that isn't so.

      Do I think that emotionally damaged people deserve a second chance? Sure, but with the proper tools and in the proper environment, not through the use of a one-size-fits-all memory supplement (or otherwise)...

      Who says this is a one-size-fits-all solution? Not I. It appears to me that there is either a reading comprehension problem or a desire to straw-man again.

      ...that doesn't solve the victimization problem of the event from reoccurring.

      A non-functional personality can solve no problems. Either we do what we can to restore advanced functionality (and maybe this will prove an effective tool to do so) or we accept the person as a loss. Many really are just that far gone.

  5. Eternal Sunshine by sexybomber · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Admittedly I didn't RTFA, but is this specific to just painful memories? I mean, I'd love to delete some memories I have, but I wouldn't want to run the risk of overwriting, say, my acceptance to law school, or memories of particularly good sex, for example. (Yes, strangely enough for a Slashdotter, I have had some.)

    How can the drug possibly discriminate between good and bad memories, or for that matter, any memories at all?

    1. Re:Eternal Sunshine by guyminuslife · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The headline is somewhat misleading. The memory is not erased. Rather, the emotions associated it are dampened. As in, "I saw my mother hacked to pieces with a chainsaw. Meh."

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
  6. Dupe? by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've seen this story before. I think.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  7. As Roosevelt said, by blakedev · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and now we have a drug for it."

    --
    QamuIs Heg qaq law' lorvIs yInqaq puS
  8. Re:Buy your expensive drugs by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll keep my alcohol. Years of private studies show loss of fear and suppression of bad memories.

    Yes, but it's like a DELETE statement without a WHERE clause.
       

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  9. Thank the Lord... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'll finally be able to wipe the image of Goatse from my mind.

  10. Off-patent varieties by jonaskoelker · · Score: 5, Funny

    So this will turn your fearful memories into hilarious ones?

    Just wait when it goes off-patent. You'll see knock-offs like propanorofl, propanolmao, propanolulz and propanocheezburgar.