Fascinating and the areas for further research are what is the critical time for both drug administration and how long after do the rats need to be reminded of the memory before it dims?

Also how can using scent or other cues aid or hurt reconsolidation during sleep - how do all these factors change with the age and sex of the animal?

Sorry to be so cynical, but such a drug would be very useful for criminals too. Imagine being able to wipe out memories from a witness or a victim...

Kinda reminds me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I wonder if we will ever get to that point.

How the brain discriminate between good memories and bad memories? I mean, we all have bad memories of some kind. How, internally, the brain directs and store those thougths that we consider bad memories in one area and the good ones in another? I guess this is critical to know to avoid the chance to erase sectors of the memory that not necessarily are related to bad moments or to PTSD.
fascinating field but still I guess a lot of questions should be answer before we have the miracoulous drug. In any case, extraordinary achievement of this research team.

I am not quite sure I am understanding of how they are sure that only one specific memory is erased. I see that the the part of the brain "storing" these memories shrinks when the drug is taken, but how can we be sure?

I would like to know the to what extent can particular fears be erased. Is this drug taken before the short term memory can be stored in the long term memory?

This is a bunch of baloney. I am a sufferer of severe ptsd and research daily for cures. These stupid scientists have been claiming to "erase memory" for over five years now, and they have not succeeded in erasing a human memory yet!! Especially with a drug?!, come on!!! They also claimed this could be done with propranolel, and that was a bunch of bull--., I in fact tried propranolel, and it did nothing. I think these are just overexagerrated claims so they can get publicity to make more money to buy another Rolls Royce while we sufferers of ptsd go on as usual.

Why is it they only erase memory in rats?

Memories are spread throughout the brain., they are nuerons which are stregnthened by their synapses. The only real way they can erase memory is on the molecular level by weakening the nueron synapses. Suny Downstate researchers have shown some real promise in their research this way by inhibiting the molecule responsible for the synaptic stregnthening in animal modules, but they are still a long way off as it is still at this point nearly impossible to single out a specific memory since they are so microscopic. I beleive someday they will be able to do this., but it is a long, long, way off.

Don't beleive anything they tell you about being able to do this by taking a pill. That is ridiculous.

The authors require us to accept that the drug is “known to cause limited amnesia”, and then assume that the amnesia is permanent (i.e., that the memories are “wiped out”.) How do the researchers know the rat’s haven’t merely “suppressed” the painful memories or even modified their responses to avoid an electric shock?

I shudder to think This is the "future of psychiatry" hinges on how many neurons are seen firing in a portion of a rat's brain.

This is ridiculous!!! Wiping any memory means deleting a portion of other memories, and as far as memories are concerned, this would entail affecting each node of recollection that has interlinks with the others. The result: A crazy, dilapidated, monstrous drug addict.

This is indeed a breakthrough, but I would be firm to propose that further research should focus on how to decrease the impact of a "bad" memory, rather than deleting it.

For example, if I am to erase your childhood memory specifically when you started your first day in the class, assuming that that is possible, then I might affect your memory of your favorite teacher as well. Of course, human beings are terribly impressionists, so your first impression on your mortal enemy since that day will be also deleted, and so is your first-day crush. If for example, that first-day crush is your WIFE today, then maybe you can imagine how your life will be for the next few minutes.

And what if I deleted not only your memory during that day, but the whole week or the whole month? Well, anyone will say that I might be a little bit absurd, but take note that memories are not actually erased, though we cannot recall everything. They just reside somewhere in the brain and eventually pops up when the extreme need arises.

"This is the future of psychiatry - neuroscience will provide tools to help it become more effective."

A quote from Dr. Quirk

It makes me wonder if effectiveness has taken place beyond ethics, if the ultimate purpose in therapy is "erasing" the source of a problem, or ... making the problem a source of "knowledge" for the patient to learn.

Memories build identity, you are what you remember

"Memory is that attitude, since it alows remebering, it admits in that very same moment, to every human being, recognize himself in a present that is product of his history and "root" of his future" (Roger Gil)

I truly congratulate the research team for this achievement, but i cant agree with its implications if its used on people.

I Apologize for my english
Ximena Barbera Bartolotti
Lic. Psychology
http://www.neuropsicologia.cl
Chile SouthAmerica

Wont the CIA, M5 and military guys just love this ?

I just wonder how a single memory can be deleted specifically from ur memory it seems a memory is a physical entity lying somwhere in the brain and we can just pick it out or destroy it that would be of no further use..............but what I understand is that a memory should consist of so many molecular or supramolcular organization and it would then create a pattern of physical entity in the brain.........if it is so then how specific your pills or molecules would be that it can destroy the pattern of molecular or supramolecular orgnization without harming the others..........but if its really done then I would congratulate the discoverors it may create a new revolution in neuroscience...........

A tad cynical but, this is akin to what politicians do to us through the media every day of our lives. Now we can put it in pill form. Ain't science wonderful?

Jewelcat is correct as she/he states "memory reconsolidation" is futile. No matter what they tell you they cannot erase memory by recalling it and then giving someone a pill to take, that is so stupid it is unbeleivable so all of you people who beleive this is unethical can save your breath. If a memory is so bad that it haunts you every waking moment of the day it will take more than a pill to erase or minimize it.

Other scientists (check out Suny Downstate Medical erasing memory, Todd Sacktor and Andre Fenton), have made more promising progress by physically erasing memory at the molecular level by inhitibiting a protein which keeps the synaptic stregnthening of the memory nueron, but they apply the molecule to the hippancumus and I beleive it destroys all memories as they cannot at this point single out a specific memory to inhibit the protein molecule. Memories are so so minute that they cannot even be seen with a microsope so it will be probably decades before they will be able to wipe out a single specific memory, and then, how will they be able to get deep into the brain into the hippancumus to target a specific memory? I think that is impossible.

I wonder if they ever do find a way to do this if they could also delete thoughts in the brain, if so there are possibilites that would be able to cure a lot of mental problems such as addictions, OCD, phobias, depression and ptsd as all of these are related to memories and thoughts.

I believe this would help many people tormented by their pasts and memories such as myself who suffers severe post traumatic stress disorder which doctors and medications cannot cure. I would give anything to have a clear mind again.

Do you honestly think this would be a humane treatment to utilize for humans especially for PTSD? It seems as though you would have to repeat the experience to erase it. Would that not be cruel? Would a rape victim have to be re-raped?

I can understand how using a substance could limit or eliminate the emotional response to the memory, but I think that is a very different thing from removing the memory. For example, propanolol was once touted as a way to keep PTS victims from creating an irreversible panic reaction associated with a traumatic memory, but it only worked if given when stress hormones and other molecules that arise from trauma were still floating about, and had not contributed to a permanent change in neuronal pathways. It is no good months later, when the damage has already been done, as Jewel above found. What about "state dependence"?--the idea that if you learn or acquire information under the influenc of a given chemical, hormone, drug,etc., you will recall it best only when the drug is present again (try memorizing something after three shots of tequila, then recalling it sober). Wouldn't that play a role here? IF this new research has any promise, it will be to help identify what the complex interactions are in our brains between memory and its ability to insite a "routine" emotional response. I doubt it will be very helpful for humans, for whom traumatic events are encoded in extremly complex ways. The only way this drug could eliminate traumatic memories is if it were given before or immediately after an event, or else it would have to damage all memory.

The skepticism voiced in previous posts is certainly warranted. However, the concept proposed in this paper certainly has merit. Although I am only vaguely familiar with the literature, I know that strong evidence supports the existence of memory reconsolidation in LTM formation for many organisms. I think many of the readers misunderstand the general principles underlying this process. In short, retrieval of a memory during a critical period reactivates specific circuitry which was involved in the initial consolidation. This reactivation process can alter the state of the synapses involved (from a molecular standpoint), so that additional protein synthesis (or activation of signalling cascades) is necessary to maintain the memory in long term storage. The implication here is that disruption of the reconsolidation process will SELECTIVELY alter the memory which was recently activated. It seems that several of the posters missed this point. I have not been able to access the full text of the paper, but it seems to provide at least some evidence that the treatment selectively altered previously strengthened synapses in the amygdala, an area necessary for fear conditioning. Clearly, specificity issues remain, but this seems like an encouraging starting point for PTS treatment. I suggest the Nature Rev. Neurosci review by Tronson and Taylor (2007) for more information on memory reconsolidation.

The vital portion of this research hinges on the brain's ability to reconstruct signals.

Creating a learned fear of a specific tone and then reproducing that precise tone while under the influence of U0126 may cause the brain to reject or corrupt the memory. However, it is not clear how much of the original signal needs to be re-created for the corruption/deletion to take place.

Talk of treating PTS or similar appears to be far-fetched at this point. Recreating a specific tone is much easier than recreating the complex signals generated during a very stressing situation. These are two very different things.

That said, this research could have exciting possibilities if used to understand how much of the signal is required to corrupt a memory as that data can open great insights into how the brain encodes and decodes information.

The use of a drug to delete specific memories was anticipated in 1956 by the excellent science fiction writer Jack Vance in "To Live Forever", in which the protagonist steals and uses this drug to erase the memory of having performed a crime.

An excerpt in which the procedure is described by the protagonist's colleague:

"We want nothing in his [the patient's] mind except his obstacle and his troubles. Then we administer anti-heptant. Whisk! The heptant [neurotransmitter] of the malevolent thought process is completely extirpated, the circuit is broken and with it goes the obstacle itself. The man is sane..."

The developer of this treatment goes on to comment on a potential risk: "If we administer too much, we blank out too much of his mind: the process continues too long."

Memory is not a singular tangible thing. If you say that under the influence of the drug, the memory of the tune and its relation to the hurt caused by electrocution has been erased, what about the memories of relevant thought trains? What about the memory of the experiences which are influenced by the fear of the memory. Especially in a non-laboratory situation, our experiences are hardly so clearly segregated. The memory of an unpleasant event would have influenced other decisions that we make down the road, because that is how humans are conditioned to learn. In that light, would erasing that memory give you gaps in your thoughts that make you unable to understand you own responses and emotions?

The short story presented in this article implies that giving the rats the drug, U0126, was coincidental
with the described outcome.
The real cause of the memory wipe-out was a de-conditioning – providing the sound without the
electric shock thus associating this one sound with no-shock (actually, with whatever other input was
available to the rats at time of clearing their memory procedure.)
I repeat, only such simple description of the experiment allows for this conclusion.
Such mechanism can be observed in everyday life by everyone.
Psychologists use a paradox intention, again, substituting a new 'pleasant' reaction in place of
(however long) existing 'undesired' one.
Since the brain knew how to form the memories, it will know how to take care of them.
The way of taking care was defined in the experiment – no reaction to this particular sound -
and can be altered at will and fantasy (therefore is in use, since always, not only by the CIA, politicians,
etc. but even by parents in upbringing their kids, daily. And what about the common 'forget it'?)
Some commentators fear undesired deletions or complications.
They are legitimate and depend on the skill level, as well as honesty, of the treating specialist.
The scary possibilities were created due to the one's lack of full knowledge of the brain's secrets,
but even Her Majesty, Neuro-Science, is still under development.
Hail to the development! It brings out the secrets in the process.

Memories, and experiences strongy infuence the way we are today. So, how do we know for sure that deleting that one memory will have no effect on thepersonal traits we have gained from the experience. Is it worth the gamble, if at all, lose the unconscious survival skill one gains from bitter/painful experiences ?

I am delighted that these discoveries promise to help the many rats who have been traumatised by having to endure so much simplistic reasoning and generalisation coming from their collegues in the world of neuroscience. Having their memories erased will allow them to return to the dumps and sewers where they belong and neuroscientists will finally be able to work in peace on studies that might actually be of relevance to humanity.

Only an idiot would beleive this fairy tale. I cannot beleive how gullible some of you people are!!! I pity the poor rats involved in this idiocity. You people are really stupid.

I salute the researchers for looking at this possibility. Maybe U0126 might be of help to Jewel, too. Her presence and perceived love and volunteerism will definitely relieve the rats as well.

Dear Oregon,

I do not appreciate your comment directed at me. We all have rights to express our opinion.

I am glad you salute stupid researchers who exagerrate their claims and provide false hope for sufferers of severe ptsd (only people suffering as myself know how bad it is), but I do not enjoy being mislead on false hopes and only want to educate the poor souls who really beleive this crap.

You will find in time that nothing becomes of U0126, except perhaps getting a rat dazed and confused, and years will go by without a single human memory being erased.

[Editor's note: some content has been removed from this post. Can I please request that all commenters refrain from making any further personal statements and stick to debating the science.]

I have experienced severe PTSD memories some for years and discovered and pursued treatment with a psychologist to get better. I have gotten over about 20 separate flashbacks so far of living as the eldest child in domestic violence family. The therapy involved linking and finding the original cause of the flashback. This therapy took a long time. When the flashbacks stopped it enabled me to go from hyperventilating 100% of the time and curled up on the couch to not having flashbacks, not hyperventilating, feeling relaxed and working for 4 days a week. Every flashback was one facet of a full memory that I had forgotten or not processed properly at the time of the trauma. I know that the flashbacks were a part of a forgotten memory because one flashback was fear of a hallway and Sundays. Then, a few days after therapy, I remembered being in the hallway on a Sunday and being yelled at by my dad for going somewhere. The feeling in the halway was the same-one in my flashback- just without the details. An I had no Sunday flashback hyperventilation on Sundays after this. I've wanted to know why I have so many times that my brain shorted in traumatic situations in my childhood so that I was left with amnesia, while experiencing flashbacks, of some events. Was it my makeup or my trauma that caused the flashbacks and hence the PTSD to occur.

It is not possible, and it will never ever be possible to selectively erase human memory by human intervention. The human brain is not a memory chip.

Unless ofcourse if it is triggered as in

amnesia:
by impact on the head, or damage to brain cells.

Gold fish syndrome:
a very very rare condition in which a person remembers events only within a specific period of time, when that period of time is elspsed the memory gets reset. A gold fish has a memory of only 3 seconds.

Memoy Loss:
demantia - loss of memory due to old age or Alzimers or Parkinsons disease.

Any other medical condition that affects the brain.

I had the same problem with traumatic memories that returned from being in a family of domestic violence when I was a child. Having memories that effect your life in a big way is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I've significantly recovered from my memories. I don't have most many of them anymore. I had about 25 and now I only have 2. I tried a psychologist who got to the bottom of the PTSD- by going back into my history. My psychologist was a legend.

By going back into my history I've learned that I was once in a situation where I thought I would be killed (won't talk about it)- but the trauma of thinking I would be killed gave me amnesia and I went into a kind of amnesia. The amnesia is what started the PTSD and flashbacks. I like to think My brain was trying to process things but couldn't quiet get their because of the amnesia so it get cycling the bits of memory over and over again.

Some of the memories seemed bad but when I actually got the whole memory back I realised what happened wasn't like I thought it was.

Once, I started having a memory of being taken from my bed by 2 strange men when I was 3. I didn't recall this happening. I talked to my mother- she said this memory actually happened the way I said. Strangers took me due to a custody change from my grandparents. Lucky my mum told me that or I still would have felt that I had this memory and wouldn't recall where it came from.

From my experience I feel that sometimes if you go through traumatic experiences it is a good idea to write them down so if you get some kind of delayed PTSD reaction later in life you will not forget them. I wish I had written them down and put them away where no-one could see them. Then I wouldn't have had to go through counceling for 10 years, and have psychologists continually misdiagnosing me as having panic disorder because I didn't remember the life-threatening event. If I had remembered the life-threatening event, I would have had PTSD. But becuause I didn't, I was told I had brain chemical imbalances and panic disorder.

I received the drug VERSED at the hospital, but instead of erasing my memories, it CAUSED PTSD, as I had no idea that they had a zombie drug like VERSED in their arsonal. I like to know what happens to me and had requested a block instead of mind altering drugs. Instead, the medical staff tried an end run around my memory. It has been 2 years and i am still not back to my former self. There are probably a lot of resons why this drug didn't work on me (thank God) but I live in fear that this drug will be used on me again in such a stealthy and disrespectful way. What are we coming to? At any time and for any reason, our memories are fooled with for expediency? By the way, a person who feels no trauma about horrible events is called a PSYCOPATH aren't they?