A Pill for Painful Memories
In the 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a couple who have a turbulent romantic relationship decide to undergo a psychiatrist’s experimental procedure to erase the memory of each other. If you could take a pill to alter the memory of painful, traumatic events, would you take it?
Researchers are finding that altering memory is no longer science fiction. A group of Harvard and Canadian researchers are challenging what we know about memory. Until recently, memory has been thought to be like clay with recent memory soft and pliable and older memories hardened into a permanent, stable state. Scientists are finding, however, that long-term memories can be changed. Recalling an event causes older memories to revert to an unstable state. [read post]
