Brain Can Throw Out Fearful Memories, Study Reveals

A wide research on memory and fear may go a level up with the new findings released by researchers from the Uppsala University. The team has found that overnight emotional memories only remain permanent if they are allowed to.

Supervised by Professors Mats Fredrikson and Tomas Furmark, Thomas Agren and colleagues had carried out a study, which has led them to discover that removal of fearful memories, newly formed, from the brain of humans is possible.

A neutral picture was shown to the subjects in the study, all of whom were at the same time administered an electric shock. The aim was to elicit a fear memory in them. Following the same, the picture was shown again, this time without a shock.

It was then found that disruption in the reconsolidation process while remembering something affects the content of memory. The team says that while remembering a thing, one's memory becomes unstable and later re-stabilized with another consolidation process.

It means that what originally happened is forgotten then and what was being remembered is tried to be recalled. "Ultimately the new findings may lead to improved treatment methods for the millions of people in the world who suffer from anxiety issues like phobias, post-traumatic stress, and panic attacks", said Agren.