A team of scientists from the Pablo de Olavide University (Seville) has managed to erase memories in laboratory mice , as they have declared at the VIII Congress of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) held in Barcelona.
Specifically, the researchers prevented the animals from remembering the association between two stimuli that they had previously learned. To do this, they electrically stimulated a group of neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain in which many processes related to memory and learning take place. In a second experiment, the team also succeeded in erasing these memories by reversibly suppressing the activity of neurons using a technique called pharmacogenetics. "The activity of neurons in this area of the brain is necessary for memory to recover," explained José María Delgado, one of the authors.
This work is a first step in the search for drugs that allow treating people with mental disorders caused by traumatic memories. If more progress is made in the study of these mechanisms, "clinical tools could be created to selectively erase unwanted memories," Delgado explained. Until that long-awaited pill arrives, don't miss these 6 tricks to improve memory .
