Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory

[groovedaddy]

Suppose scientists could erase certain memories by tinkering with a single substance in the brain. Could make you forget a chronic fear, a traumatic loss, even a bad habit. Researchers in Brooklyn have recently accomplished comparable feats, with a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory, like emotional associations, spatial knowledge or motor skills.

The drug blocks the activity of a substance that the brain apparently needs to retain much of its learned information. And if enhanced, the substance could help ward off dementias and other memory problems.

So far, the research has been done only on animals. But scientists say this memory system is likely to work almost identically in people.

The discovery of such an apparently critical memory molecule, and its many potential uses, are part of the buzz surrounding a field that, in just the past few years, has made the seemingly impossible suddenly probable: neuroscience, the study of the brain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/health/research/06brain.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[soothsayer]

1. thisis what rummy wanted so he could make soldiers do horrible (and prolly illegal) things

and the wipe their memories of it. Scary stuff.

[notesdev]

2. This is monstrous

I shudder to think of the potential applications for this. The potential to rob someone of their essential identity and humanity is too great to permit this kind of research.

[provis99]

3. can they make us forget George Bush was ever President?

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Those who are not allowed to remember history will be forced to repeat it!

[BridgeTheGap]

5. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" - yep, sounds familiar. n.t

[backtoblue]

6. Neat movie

And once your memory is erased, what sort of things replace them and what will you begin to believe?? "Manchurian Candidate" was like a horror movie for me.