London: Scientists have developed a way to delete unwanted memories from the brain. University of Toronto experts have discovered that although there are millions of brain cells in the brain, only a handful are linked to bad memories. And in groundbreaking studies on mice, they were able to pinpoint those brain cells associated with “fear or threat” memories — and delete them, the Mirror reported. The researchers found that they could wipe away single, specific memories while leaving other memories intact.
Professor Sheena Josselyn, who led the research, said: “These findings offer proof-of-principle that treatments do not need to affect the entire body or even entire brain. Our results indicate that a critical component of a fear or memory may reside in a small portion of neurons and that treatments could be targeted to just these neurons.” While erasing bad memories could help rape survivors or returning soldiers suffering from PTSD, there could be ethical hurdles. Some ethicists believe that deleting memories deletes a vital part of a person’s identity.
