Researchers have found a way of permanently deleting painful memories, which they say could lead to drugs for post-traumatic stress disorder.
A team at John Hopkins University in the U.S removed a protein from the region of the brain responsible for recalling fear in tests on mice. The mice were then unable to recall fear associated with a loud sound.
Science-fiction could soon be reality after researchers found a way to delete painful memories – a concept explored in the film Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
The method is similar to that imagined in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet decide to erase eachother from their memories after a difficult breakup.
The scientists, whose report appears in Science Express, said it had important implications for patients whose lives were blighted by fear.
Lead researcher, Dr Richard L Huganir, said: ‘When a traumatic event occurs, it creates a fearful memory that can last a lifetime and have a debilitating effect on a person’s life.
‘Our finding describing these molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in that process raises the possibility of manipulating those mechanisms with drugs to enhance behavioral therapy for such conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder.’
Behavioral therapy has been shown to ease the depth of the emotional response to traumatic memories, but not in completely removing the memory itself, making relapse common.
Dr Huganir and postdoctoral fellow Roger Clem focused on the nerve circuits in the amygdala, the part of the brain known to underly so-called fear conditioning in people and animals.
Using sound to cue fear in mice, they observed that certain cells in the amygdala conducted more current after the mouse was exposed to a loud, sudden tone.
They found temporary increases in the amount of particular proteins – the calcium-permeable AMPARs – within a few hours of fear conditioning that peaked at 24 hours and disappeared 48 hours later.
These particular proteins are uniquely unstable and can be removed from nerve cells.
Dr Huganir said: ‘The idea was to remove these proteins and weaken the connections in the brain created by the trauma, thereby erasing the memory itself.’
Mice who had the proteins removed did not react to the sound cue, while the control group did.
Dr Huganir said: ‘This may sound like science fiction, the ability to selectively erase memories.
‘But this may one day be applicable for the treatment of debilitating fearful memories in people, such as post-traumatic stress syndrome associated with war, rape or other traumatic events.’
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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