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Scientists Have Discovered How To 'Delete' Unwanted Memories (telegraph.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind dept.

A new documentary from PBS reveals how cutting edge science enables us to 'edit' memories and create new ones from scratch. "For much of human history, memory has been seen as a tape recorder that faithfully registers information and replays it intact," say the film's makers. "But now, researchers are discovering that memory is far more malleable, always being written and rewritten, not just by us but by others. We are discovering the precise mechanisms that can explain and even control our memories."

24 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Paging Dr. Tyrell by dwywit · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, and his niece Rachel.

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    1. Re:Paging Dr. Tyrell by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 3, Funny

      Bzzzzzzt---wrong film. And therefore not even remotely funny.

      You should be paging Dr Edgemar.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    2. Re:Paging Dr. Tyrell by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Those quacks?!!! When I have memories that need removal, I page Dr. Mierzwiak!

      --
      I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
    3. Re:Paging Dr. Tyrell by KGIII · · Score: 2

      If you want to watch the documentary, here it is:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      It's kind of interesting. It's not one of my favorites but there's the link for those who want to see it. If you've got an hour to burn and want to learn about it, have at it. I like NOVA and this one is fine, still not one of my favorites.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    4. Re:Paging Dr. Tyrell by michelcolman · · Score: 2

      Maybe his memory is not what it used to be.

  2. Of course this should be possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My understanding is that when a person remembers something, the record of that memory is destroyed and then rewritten in the brain. However, there is at least one drug that can prevent the creation of memories in the brain. It's always seemed logical that, under the influence of such a drug, accessing a memory should also cause that memory to effectively be erased.

    1. Re:Of course this should be possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Uh, no... did you watch the whole show? Has to do with old memories. The act of remembering a memory re-stores the memory. If you interrupt the re-storing process, the memory...dies.

  3. Mitigation by mentil · · Score: 2

    Time to invest in Ray-Ban.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:Mitigation by Barny · · Score: 2

      You mean luxottica?

      Ray Ban has been nothing but a brand name for quite a few years now. In fact, Luxottica owns damn near all sunglasses brands.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
  4. Before We Go All "This is Great!"... by sehlat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1: Does it require the subject's cooperation to erase the memories? 2: Can they be retrieved by some means later, if necessary?

    If the answer to these questions is "No." Consider the following scenarios:

    1. An accused criminal gets the key witnesses in the case wiped before the trial.

    2. Cops "forcefully interrogate" a suspect, and when the suspect turns out to be innocent, wipe the victim's memories of their treatment.

    And those are just Abuse 101.

    1. Re:Before We Go All "This is Great!"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As far as I can tell, the entire thing is just theory of what they want to do, not that they have the ability or understanding of how to do it.

      The article has about as much science as the Discovery channel.

    2. Re:Before We Go All "This is Great!"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ... 1. An accused criminal gets the key witnesses in the case wiped before the trial.

      A politician or CEO has his own memory of crooked deals, wiped.
      Rape victims or pedophile victims get their memories of their abuse and torture, wiped.

      Leaving aside the amount of technology required, there will be a large black market for this. It may create an industry of deleting every unpleasant memory, leaving only the memories of adulation, success and narcissism. Will that have long-term consequences? Memories were deleted in the movie Frozen (2013) without consequence. In ST: TOS, Kirk claims the pain provided by our memories define a lot of our behaviours. With that pain gone, will a person commit those mistakes again?

    3. Re:Before We Go All "This is Great!"... by Xest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More to the point, I'm wondering if there's any actual science here. A Torygraph news article referencing a PBS documentary doesn't exactly scream "science" to me. We're basically hearing it from a tertiary source.

      So does anyone have a link to the actual research and the primary source behind this?

    4. Re:Before We Go All "This is Great!"... by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Informative

      So I watched the documentary...

      1: Does it require the subject's cooperation to erase the memories?

      Yes. Fundamentally, when you recall a memory (including phobias), the act of recalling it leaves the memory in a chemically vulnerable state as it has to be "re-written" when you're done. It's not like computer storage where you can read the same data over and over without fear of tampering with the original content. In the brain, all memories being recalled get modified at some level.

      Basically, the phobia is recalled by the subject. He or she takes a pill that will block the re-writing of the memory process. After several sessions, the phobia is severally diminished if not outright eliminated. I would imagine this technique could condition the perfect soldier to not fear the battlefield. A true "disposable hero".

      2: Can they be retrieved by some means later, if necessary?

      I don't think so. Once the memory has been modified, that's it. I doubt there (but do not know) equivalent of shadow copies of pathways like a hard drive has a shadow copy of data per the filesystem.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    5. Re:Before We Go All "This is Great!"... by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A total memory wipe and replacement is basically the same as killing you. Yes your body is still alive but what makes you "you" is your memories, your life.

  5. Finally! by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please test it on goatse

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  6. Faithfully? by Knuckles · · Score: 5, Informative

    "For much of human history, memory has been seen as a tape recorder that faithfully registers information and replays it intact,"

    Um, no. It has been well known that memory is unreliable.

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    1. Re:Faithfully? by janimal · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Mod this up. Any lawyer will have had this in their first class on witnesses. Memories are known to be very unreliable.

      Years ago, I taught myself hypnosis, based on reading a book about it. One thing that struck me in that book was the statement that on a subconscious level, our brain cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy. It is only our consciousness (the linear reasoning part) that filters the fantasy bits and supplies appropriate metadata. As any beginner hyptnotist will learn, consciousness is off much more often than we realize.

      From my own experiments, erasing someones memory of something while they are under is one of the best working mechanisms that become available to the hypnotist. When I told folks to forget my name and planted a different name in its place, the information persisted even past the session. I had to show my ID to convince the person that their memory of my name has been manipulated.

      The ethical implications of this mechanism are obvious. In fact, I haven't been able to proceed in my "studies" of the phenomenon precisely because I wasn't able to deal with using the mechanism without the subject's knowledge.

    2. Re:Faithfully? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Funny

      It has been well known that memory is unreliable.

      Unless you're misremembering that.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  7. Paywalled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Got a message demanding that I either pay their subscription or allow them to load adds on my machine. Ironic considering the subject of the article... Even more disheartening is that pbs's own site flat out displays a white page with an add blocker enabled.

    In any case here is a functioning link http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/neuro-hackers-create-delete-memories-160213.htm

  8. Let me guess.... by dohzer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does the method involve alcohol?

    1. Re:Let me guess.... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

      I thought alcohol got rid of the memories that you wanted to keep and kept the ones that you wish you would go away.

  9. Nice! by nospam007 · · Score: 2

    Create new memories?

    I need a couple of years Harvard Medical and Law to go, thanks.

  10. Can it be used to treat PTSD? by maple_shaft · · Score: 2

    As someone diagnosed with PTSD from a traumatic event, I have been to different types of therapies and some of them work to an extent. In particular EMDR therapy seeks to address the problem by having the patient recall the traumatic memory while things are done to help diffuse the autonomous reaction from the amygdala part of the brain. The Amygdala is a primitive part of the brain that controls flight or fight. It uses a proto type of memory where stimuli that occur before trauma or an incredibly stressful event are hard wired into the amygdala, think of it like ROM memory. When similar stimuli occur it triggers the release of cortisol and adrenaline causing a panic or anxiety attack. This is why CBT therapy is so ineffective for treating PTSD and other anxiety disorders because the problem isn't cognitive in nature. It would be interesting if these methods could be used for other types of memory as well and finally work towards a more effective treatment for PTSD sufferers.