Remember the first time you walked in on your parents performing the vertical dance? How about that time you had a U-shaped wet spot in your pants because you arrived at the restroom just a tad bit late? Extreme examples for sure, and I think you get the idea. But maybe it wasn’t an embarrassing moment that you experienced. Maybe it was a breakup with a significant other that left your heart shattered into a million pieces, scattered into distant galaxies. Rather than dowsing your sorrows in a fifth of bourbon, don’t you sometimes wish you could banish these painful memories from your mind? A recent study in mice allowed researchers to delete specific memories without harm to other memories.
The basis for the study comes from decades of research on a protein known as alpha-CaM kinase II — a critical component in the formation of memory. In an effort to gain further insight into alpha-CaM kinase II’s role in memory, Joe Tsien, a neurobiologist at the Medical College of Georgia manipulated the protein in mice. He found that he could delete a specific memory if he revved up the amount of alpha-CaM kinase II in their brain while the mouse was recalling that memory.
The first step for the researchers was to create a terrifying situation for the mice that could be associated with some kind of stimulus. They placed the animals in a chamber, played a sound and then quickly followed this with an electric shock. The outcome for the mice: a scary place with terrible music. And in case you’re wondering what mice do when they get scared, they become completely immobilized, a process termed “freezing”. After one month of training, the bad experiences became consolidated as long-term memory.
Next, the researchers wanted to see if they could wipe away the terrible association the mice had between pain and sound. So they cranked up the alpha-CaM kinase II protein in the mice’s head, placed them in a completely different chamber and played the same tone that had previously caused them great fear. This time the mice showed no evidence of freezing when they heard the sound. Thus, they were able to extinguish the memory as it was being retrieved.
Yet the most interesting part of the experiment took place when they reintroduced the mice into their original chamber. The mice exhibited the same fear response as before. Although the shock-associated sound had been erased from their mind, the mice still retained memory of the place where they received the shock. Based on these findings, Tsien concluded that this specific memory had been erased without disruption to other memories.
A drug to target and delete specific memories could be very useful for patients who deal with post-traumatic stress disorder. But Tsien expressed doubts as to the translational nature of his findings. During an interview with Reuters, he expressed the following: “The human brain is so complex and dramatically different from the mouse brain. That’s why I say I don’t think it’s possible you can do the same thing in humans. If that happens in my lifetime, however, I wouldn’t be surprised either.” But in case you never get to see it in your lifetime, just use some common sense and remember to knock before entering.
Ashok is a University Medical student. He can be reached at a.tholpady@cavalierdaily.com.
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