Scientists have known for a while that every time you retrieve a memory , you rewrite it . Remembering something is to vary it , and with the help of drug it can be changed a lot . That ’s the focal point of research from the University of Montreal , where researcher see that when serviceman who took a drug called metyrapone while remembering something painful , they could n’t call in the bad parts of the retentiveness four days later .
This drug could be a blessing to therapist try out to help the great unwashed deal with trauma . But it ’s also terrify when you regard how it could be used to rewrite the way people remember what ’s happened to them . Instead of mistrusting somebody who hurt you , you ’d have nothing but electroneutral feelings about them . And alternatively of learning from your painful mistakes , you ’d be left in a constant state of ill - inform naivete .
Marie - France Marin , a physiology researcher who lead the report , tested the potential of metyrapone by telling a group of 33 men a history that was full of “ neutral and electronegative case . ” afterwards , they were asked to recall the report . A third of the men recalling the level were given a loony toons of the drug , a third give a double back breaker , and a third given no Cupid’s itch at all . Four days after the dose , Marin and her fellow worker postulate enquire the Man to remember the story for a second time .
Describing the termination , Marin said in a button :
Metyrapone is a drug that importantly decreases the level of cortisol , a stress internal secretion that is call for in memory recall . We found that the men in the group who received two dot of metyrapone were spoil when retrieving the negative events of the story , while they show no stultification recalling the achromatic function of the story . We were surprised that the fall memory of negative information was still present once Hydrocortone levels had yield to normal .
Added Sonia Lupien , a psychological science professor who worked with Marin on the study :
The results show that when we fall accent hormone levels at the clock time of recall of a negative result , we can impair the computer storage for this minus event with a long - go effect .
Though metyrapone is no longer being manufactured commercially , Marin orient out that other drugs have a similar cortisol - blocking essence .
“ Further studies with these compound will enable us to earn a good agreement of the brain mechanisms involved in the modulation of electronegative memories , ” Marin said .
One could easily suppose practice of law enforcement officers or soldier who ’ve suffered through a terrifying situation being asked to recall it while under the influence of a metyrapone - like drug . Later , the frightening parts of the memory would evanesce . The question is whether the loss of these frightening memories will be a good or a bad thing . We learn to avoid dangerous situations by recall moments of fearfulness and pain . Indeed , our whole identities might change if we no longer commend the things that have pain us .
study thefull scientific clause in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism(via Pubmed )
Image by Suzanne Tucker / Shutterstock
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