‘Deleting specific memories becomes possible’

Researchers at a medical college have developed a drug that could be used to selectively delete memories. The scientists had success with the drugs in mice.

The scientists at the Georgia College of Medicine developed the chemicals specifically for mouse brains, but the protein that causes the memory loss is also found in humans. The researchers made the mice hear a sound in a closed room, followed by an electric shock. In the control mice, a Pavlovian reaction caused the mice to become scared when they heard the sound. The mice that were given the memory protein when the sound was played lost their memory. The researchers demonstrated this by exposing the mice to the sound: the mice with an erased memory no longer panicked.

The protein in question that the mice were overdosed with, alpha-CaMKII, is also used by the human brain. However, according to Dr. Joe Tsien, the method his group uses does not work on humans. However, the working principle could apply to the human brain. The researchers discovered that the alpha-CaMKII protein plays an important role in the development of memory. However, when the protein becomes available to the brain in large amounts, the memory approached during the overdose is erased. A pill could cause this overdose. In this way, unpleasant memories, such as traumatic events, would be deleted could be.