A new study from the University of Uppsala (Sweden) shows that if the memory of fear is interfered with at the right moment and these memories are recent, its impact on the brain can be weakened. This finding had already been tested in mice.
Scientists have long known that the brain amygdala is a vitally important structure for centralizing fear and storing it for the long term. As explained to SINC Thomas Agren, co-author of the study published in the journalScience, in this research it has been possible to “show that eIt is possible to erase the imprint of fearful memories in the memory of these tonsils and weaken them by interrupting the period of reconsolidationin the brain”.
Agren and his team used afunctional magnetic resonance imaging technique to observe the effects of fear in people, and discovered that, after a traumatic impact, its memory and its reconsolidation are fixed in the brain amygdala, as happened with mice. “Our results assume that there is a memory update mechanism that has been conserved in many species throughout their evolution, and the amygdala of the brain would be the epicenter of the formation of these traumatic memories,” says Thomas.
To see if the erasure process was the same in humans, the team of scientists analyzed the behavior of a group of people who were presented with various images that caused them fear. To activate their memories, they were shown these photographs repeatedly until the consolidation process stopped.
Interrupt the reconsolidation
“The subjects were conscious until they received the stimulus that produced the shock on the first day. Five days after the experiment, they no longer showed fear reactions when interrupting the reconsolidation process, since memory became neutral and did not incite to fear “, assures the researcher.
The work showed that this memory updating mechanism in the brain can be disrupted in such a way that the amygdala no longer reacts to fear . “Why a memory becomes unstable is not clear. Possibly it is a memory updating mechanism that helps us add new information to memories or change their emotional value,” Agren concludes.
According to the researchers, this new work represents a breakthrough in learning more about human memory and could help improve treatments for problems such as anxiety or phobias.
