Engineering News Blog

Engineering News

Latest news of interest to engineers. Sourced from GlobalSpec's Engineering News

Previous in Blog: Two Nuclear Submarines Collide in the Atlantic [Military]   Next in Blog: Anonymous Caller? That's What You Think
Close
Close
Close
11 comments
Rate Comments: Nested

Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

Posted February 17, 2009 8:43 AM

From Slashdot:

Technology Review has an article about a common drug that seems to 'delete' painful memories related to a fearful experience. Experiments carried out by neuro-scientists at Emory University show that propranolol, a drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure, can suppress the emotional part of a fearful memory. The results, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest a new way to treat anxiety disorders. In recent years, scientists have discovered that the simple act of remembering a past experience requires that the memory be consolidated once again. And both animal research and some human studies have shown that during re consolidation, long-term memories — once thought to be fairly stable — can be more easily meddled with.

Read the whole article

Reply

Interested in this topic? By joining CR4 you can "subscribe" to
this discussion and receive notification when new comments are added.
Anonymous Poster
#1

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/17/2009 12:34 PM

"I want my pain! I NEED my pain!" - Cpt. J.T. Kirk

Besides, my one and only fear is taking pills. Well...from doctors, anyway.

Reply
Guru

Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 4513
Good Answers: 88
#2

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/17/2009 2:56 PM

Hell no. If I took that pill I wouldn't remember ninety percent of my own posts.

Reply
Guru

Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 4513
Good Answers: 88
#5
In reply to #2

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/17/2009 7:24 PM

Including this one.

And that one.

Reply
Guru

Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: nj,usa
Posts: 1253
Good Answers: 33
#3

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/17/2009 3:24 PM

I have a fear of taking pills.

__________________
CARPE CRUSTULORUM!
Reply
Guru

Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: New York
Posts: 575
Good Answers: 16
#4

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/17/2009 7:20 PM

What happens when it starts suppressing other memories as well?

"I had to dump a chunk of long-term memory... my childhood" - Johnny Mnemonic

__________________
Kaplin
Reply
Guru
Hobbies - Fishing - Popular Science - Paleontology - New Member

Join Date: May 2008
Location: Holeincanoe Ontario
Posts: 2169
Good Answers: 27
#6
In reply to #4

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/18/2009 6:35 AM

They'll have a 'selective memory' pill for that.

__________________
Prophet Freddy has the answer!
Reply
Anonymous Poster
#7
In reply to #4

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/18/2009 7:38 AM

Exactly! This is simply step #1 in drug companies' profit-maximizing goal of creating a drug that makes you forget that you've taken it. So you take another one...and another...etc.

Reply
Commentator

Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Miami Florida USA
Posts: 83
Good Answers: 3
#8
In reply to #7

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/18/2009 9:17 AM

You have been found guilty of "Thought Crimes"

Reply
Guru
Popular Science - Weaponology - New Member Hobbies - Fishing - New Member

Join Date: May 2007
Location: Aloha or
Posts: 659
Good Answers: 19
#9

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/18/2009 1:23 PM

How do you target only one memory and not others?
I don't want to hear an "Oops wrong memory removed" ;)

Seems that recovering the incorrectly deleted memory might be difficult.

__________________
Closed biased minds are utterly impervious to any factual evidence which contradicts their beliefs
Reply
Commentator

Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Ohio
Posts: 96
Good Answers: 3
#10

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/18/2009 3:24 PM

My question would be would the application of this drug cause a person to deviate from societal norms? Otherwise put would someone who has a reasonable fear of breaking the law now be more inclined to commit crime?

__________________
I would rather be ashes than dust...
Reply
Guru

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Etherville
Posts: 12362
Good Answers: 115
#11

Re: Drug Deletes Fearful Memories

02/19/2009 10:39 AM

It all came back to me a couple of days ago......

__________________
For sale - Signature space. Apply on self addressed postcard..
Reply
Reply to Blog Entry 11 comments
Copy to Clipboard

Users who posted comments:

Anonymous Poster (2); Duckinthepond (1); Kaplin (1); Kris (1); not so smart (1); silvCrow (1); Spotsart (1); user-deleted-13 (2); VMI1998 (1)

Previous in Blog: Two Nuclear Submarines Collide in the Atlantic [Military]   Next in Blog: Anonymous Caller? That's What You Think

Advertisement