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When it comes to forming and consolidating memories, our brains do much of the work while we are asleep.
Having spent the day gathering experiences, our brains turn these into memories by briefly replaying them as we catch our z’s.
For some time now, scientists have been interested in how this process can be manipulated in order to erase negative memories and/or reinforce good ones.
According to a study recently published in PNAS, a group of international researchers may have made a breakthrough.
In their own words, the findings of the study “open broad avenues for seeking to weaken aversive or traumatic memories.”
The experiment in the study lasted several days, and involved a group of 37 participants.
In the first stage of the study, the participants were trained to link negative images with nonsense words made up for the purpose of the study.
The images that the participants were shown were objectively negative. Examples included injured people and dangerous animals.
The next day, after the participants had slept, the researchers tried to reassociate half of the words in the participants’ minds with positive images.
This time, the images that the participants were shown were undeniably positive. They included things like peaceful landscapes and smiling children.
During the second night of sleep, recordings of the words were played for the participants to hear and for their subconscious to process.
The recordings were played while the participants were in the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stage of sleep, since this stage is known to be important for memory.
Brain activity was monitored using electroencephalography, and theta-band activity, which is linked to emotional memory processing, spiked in response to the recordings being played.
Interestingly, the theta-band responses in the participants brains were significantly higher when the positive cues were used.
Over the next few days, researchers used questionnaires to help understand whether volunteers were more able to recall the positive memories or negative memories, or neither.
For the words reassociated with something positive, positive memories were more likely to pop into the participants heads.
Moreover, the words reassociated with something positive were also viewed with a more positive emotional bias.
In general, they found that the volunteers were less able to recall the negative memories that had subsequently been confused with positive ones.
This may have implications for the way in which care providers treat mental health conditions associated with bad memories and traumatic flashbacks.
Mental health disorders associated with negative memories include depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
However, it is important to note that it is still early days for this research, and that these results were produced by a small, tightly-controlled lab experiment.
On the one hand, this is good, because it means that scientists are more able to trust the accuracy of the results.
On the other hand, this is bad, because the study does not necessarily reflect real-world thinking, or the way memories, both positive and negative, are formed in the real world.
Indeed, the researchers admit that seeing a negative image in the context of a lab experiment would not have the same impact as witnessing a traumatic event in real life.
Indeed, the negative memory associated with the latter of these two events may be considerably more difficult to overwrite.
It will therefore take some more time for scientists to truly understand how memory overwriting could happen and how long-lasting the effects could be.
For now, however, this study appears to be a step in the right direction, and the method used to overwrite memories appears to show some promise.
Sources: (ScienceAlert) (Indy100)
Ever wished it were possible only to remember the good things in life? Of course, life will always have its ups and downs, but it's easy to imagine that we would be generally happier if negative memories didn't exist. Well, according to research recently published, scientists may have found a way to make this a reality. In one interesting experiment, researchers looked at a potential method for overwriting bad memories with good ones.
Curious? Check out this gallery to find out more.
Have scientists found a way to erase bad memories?
A new study may have brought them closer
LIFESTYLE Brain
Ever wished it were possible only to remember the good things in life? Of course, life will always have its ups and downs, but it's easy to imagine that we would be generally happier if negative memories didn't exist. Well, according to research recently published, scientists may have found a way to make this a reality. In one interesting experiment, researchers looked at a potential method for overwriting bad memories with good ones.
Curious? Check out this gallery to find out more.