The human experience is paved with ups and downs. There are happy
moments and ones we'd rather forget. But what if you could edit or even delete certain
memories forever?
Researchers are studying the possibility of editing memories
via a single substance in the brain. They also say they're getting closer to
detecting and understanding critical memory molecules. Although studies thus
far have been conducted only on mice and rats, scientists are saying that the
memory system is "likely to work almost identically" on humans.
If successful, the procedure could erase fears, bad habits
or addictions, and even traumatic losses.
Speed-dialing
Information
Scientists have been trying to understand the human brain
for centuries. Despite advances man in
space exploration and technology, the brain remains elusive. However, efforts
continue to understand how the human brain – a mere clump of tissue - captures
and stores all the information it does.
Previous research suggests that the brain operates on a "biological
speed-dial". In this analogy, the brain is stimulated by an experience (e.g., a
word) and quickly sends that stimulus to a larger network of cells, each of
which adds detail such as sight, sound or smell. The brain retains the memory
by growing thicker communication lines between the cells.
While this theory is substantial, scientists are still trying
to figure out how the brain performs
this function.
Pinpointing Molecules
In 1999, Dr. Jeff Lichtman and Joshua R. Sanes of Harvard
published a list of 117 molecules that were involved in creating "long-term
potentiation" – or lasting speed-dial connections with a neighbor, in the
journal Nature Neuroscience.
At the time, Lichtman and Sanes didn't see their list as
being particularly clarifying, but one of the substances on their list has
turned out to have "unusual properties".
Now, Dr. Todd C. Sacktor and André A. Fenton have begun
researching the molecule known as PKMzeta. According to Sacktor, his father told
him to study this particular molecule before his death. Sacktor's father's
advice eventually led to Sacktor and his team to find that PKMzeta was present
in activated cells when they were "dialed" by a neighboring neuron.
Further, they learned that PKMzeta molecules swarmed to the
fingerlike connections throughout brain cells and strengthened them. Once
there, the PKMzeta cells remained indefinitely.
Undoing PKMzeta's
Effects 
Dr. André A. Fenton has already used the research on PKMzeta
to teach animals strong memories. For one test, Fenton taught animals to move
through a small chamber to avoid a small electric shock.
The memories were so strong in the animal that even when it
was placed in the chamber again months later, it still remembered how to avoid the
shock. However, once the same animals had been injected with ZIP, a drug that
interferes with PKMzeta, the animals' memories of the chamber were essentially
erased.
Similar experiments have been performed by Yadin Dudai at
the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Dudai found that one dose
of ZIP caused rats to forget a "strong disgust" they'd developed for a taste
that had made them sick three months earlier.
Endless Possibilities
Come with Ethical Dilemmas
With this new knowledge comes an array of scientific and ethical
questions that cannot be answered at this time. Should people erase certain
traumas or addictions just because they can?
Dr. Steven E. Hyman, a neurobiologist at Harvard, argues the
moral implications of editing memories. The New York Times describes
Hymans's argument as such: "if traumatic memories are like malicious stalkers,
then troubling memories — and a healthy dread of them — form the foundation of
a moral conscience."
Other, larger social concerns focus on the fact that humans
already use smart drugs and performance enhancers. Hyman see this as
problematic because "a substance that actually improved memory could lead to an
arms race."
Many questions and doubts remain. Neuroscientist Thomas J.
Carew of the University of California, Irvine
says "There is not going to be one, single memory molecule, the system is just
not that simple." Although the answers are still unclear, the possibility
remains and researchers continue to work towards this goal.
Personally, I cannot help but think of the television show Dollhouse,
where human memories are erased and people are imprinted with a customizable
set of memories to produce human soldiers. Crazy? Maybe. But who knows what
types of possibilities memory editing could create.
What do you think?
- Should people edit memories?
- Are the larger social implications and risks worth it?
Resources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/health/research/06brain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1241704903-sRvEN716SQh6nIlsdn4MCg
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