Researcher learns to brainwash memories
25/10/2008 13:32
Liang Yiwen/Shanghai Daily news
Researchers at East
China Normal University say they are able to selectively erase memories from
mice in a laboratory, raising hopes human memory afflictions such as
post-traumatic stress syndrome can one day be treated more effectively.
By
manipulating levels of an important protein in the brain, certain memories can
be selectively deleted, researchers led by American-Chinese Joe Tsien reported
in the journal Neuron.
The university said the research has been ongoing at
its Shanghai Institute of Brain Functional Genomics for the past five
years.
"Targeted memory erasure is no longer limited to the realm of science
fiction," said the research team.
Memory is generally separated into four
stages: acquisition, consolidation, storage and retrieval. Previous research has
identified specific molecules and events that appear to play a role in the
various phases of the memory process. One such "memory molecule," a protein
called kinase II (CaMKII), is an enzyme that has been linked to multiple aspects
of learning and memory.
The researchers have developed a process that made it
possible to manipulate the protein in transgenic mice that had been bred to
overproduce the molecule.
Tsien, a professor at East China Normal University
and a neurobiologist at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States,
wrote in the journal: "Using this technique, we examined the manipulation of
transgenic CaMKII-activity on the retrieval of short-term and long-term fear
memories and novel-object recognition memory" in transgenic mice.
The
research team found it could manipulate the protein in the brains of the mice as
the animals were being stimulated, and observe their ability to recall memories
of the stimulation.
Through protein manipulation, researchers found a way not
just to block the mice's memories of the stimulation, but to erase them without
impacting the brain's ability to recall other things.
Tsien said the
technique might one day be applied to war veterans who "often suffer from
reoccurring traumatic memory replays after returning home."
However, he
warned that it was premature to expect a miracle cure.
"No one should expect
to have a pill do the same in humans any time soon, we are barely at the foot of
a very tall mountain," he wrote.
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