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Researchers erased traumatic memories in adult mice by destroying the molecular 'net' surrounding the relevant neurons, according to a report in Science. After a certain age, netlike structures of proteins and sugars in the amygdala -- the region of the brain responsible for making and altering memories -- make recollections of fear erasure-resistant. But the researchers were able to reverse this process in adult mice by injecting them with an enzyme that breaks down the nets. To test their method, they conditioned these mice, as well as a control group, to fear a sound by pairing it with an electric shock. Then the researchers tried get the mice to forget those fears by playing the sound but not delivering a shock. Both sets of mice temporarily overcame their fear of the sound after reconditioning, but the mice that had been injected with the enzyme did so much faster. More impressively, one month later the treated mice appeared to completely forget the traumatic experience -- as if these adult mice had the brains of much younger mice -- while the control group had resumed fearing the sound.
Caveat: The study was conducted on mice only. More research is required before such findings can be generalized to the management and erasure of human fears. 2010-02-25
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