Tech Times – by Linda NguyenTraumatic events are known to be lasting. People wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare or everyday things may remind them of the traumatic event. But soon, people may be able to take the negative emotions associated with a memory and change it into a positive emotion.
In a study published in Nature, researchers at MIT show that they are able to change the positive or negative emotions tied to memory in mice, and are optimistic that the findings can be translated to humans.
“Recording a memory is not like playing a tape recorder, it’s a creative process,” said Susumu Tonegawa, senior author of the paper.
Researchers gave mice a good or bad memory of a location, and then were able to flip the memory without exposing the mice again to memory triggers.
This concept is not particularly new because psychotherapists already attempt to do this with patients suffering from depression. However, Tonegawa said it is unclear whether there is actually a neurological basis for this. These new findings shed light onto the pathways associated with memory and emotion.
In the study, scientists used genetically engineered mice with light-sensitive protein – this protein allows scientists to activate different neurons by targeting them with a laser using a technique called optogenetics.
Then, researchers exposed half of the mice to a positive stimuli and the other half to a negative stimuli. These stimuli activate the neurons that form memory in the hippocampus and neurons that form the emotions behind the memories in the amygdala.
Finally, the researchers took the mice (subjects were male) that had been exposed to the positive stimuli – interactions with female mice – and gave them a shock – the negative stimuli – while the researchers activated the neurons associated with the positive memory.
They found that they were able to make the bad memory less negative and the good memory less positive by activating certain neurons.
“Emotion is intimately associated with memories of past events and episodes, and yet the ‘valence’ – the emotional value of the memories – is malleable,” Tonegawa said.
Researchers found that neurons in the hippocampus could be changed to make a negative memory less negative and vice versa, however the neurons in the amygdala remained unchanged.
Though it’ll be awhile before scientists could use a technique like this on humans, researchers are optimistic that in time, it may be feasible. Until then, they are hopeful that the new information they have observed and recorded about memory associations will be applicable to developing new techniques for treating disorders such as depression or PTSD.
Of Mice and Men.
Regardless, artificial programming of the subtle circuitry isn’t “natural”. End results will be bad, real bad.
My Fellow Americans:
This was a “bad memory” being removed from a mouse,….
Now!,… if we could just figure out how to remove the Zionism from Rats,… then we might have had a medical solution for all the traitors called Congress.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for this to appear.
JD – US Marines – Whats harder to remove?,… traumatic thoughts from a mouse,… or Zionist thoughts from a Rat?,… hmmmmm,…. looks like Zionism is far more difficult to eradicate.
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It works both ways, JD. Inversely, Optogenetics can remove good, patriotic, or religious thoughts as well.
Any new technology is ushered-in on the wings of good intention… but it is eventually subverted for evil purposes (e.g. Military Industrial Complex; controlled dissent).
We ARE essentially lab mice in a labyrinth of subliminal paths which lead into a funnel of no resort. We are deluded into thinking we have a choice and can change the course of future events.
Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
They’ve been doing the opposite for decades. Swapping good memories for bad. It’s called MKULTRA. Just think of all the unsuspecting “sheep” out there that will think this is a Major scientific breakthrough!!! Hahahaha. But alas, it really isn’t funny. And, I fully agree with the comment from US Marine. It’s just that the masses don’t know who the enemy really is. And we will all suffer for it.