IT MIGHT be possible to develop drugs that allow doctors to tamper with our memories. The method could be used to treat drug addiction, phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Long-term memories were once thought unalterable. But recent studies suggest that a memory trace is 鈥渞econsolidated鈥� each time it is recalled. These controversial results suggest the trace is rewritten afresh in our memory each time we recall it, and so is open to manipulation.
Now a team of psychologists at the University of Cambridge have confirmed that reconsolidation happens. They also showed that 鈥� in rats, at least 鈥� reconsolidation of a recalled memory is a different biochemical process to consolidation of a new memory (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1095760).
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The findings add weight to the idea that false memories can form. But the real excitement, says researcher Jonathan Lee, is the potential to wipe 鈥渂ad鈥� memories without affecting others. He thinks that by giving patients drugs that block the reconsolidation pathway it may be possible to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias and the cravings that often lead drug addicts to relapse.