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VOL.462 NO.7274 DATED 10 DECEMBER 2009
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Memory: Forego the fear
DOI: 10.1038/nature08637
A drug free, non-invasive method for semi-permanently blocking the return of fear memories in humans is reported in this week’s Nature. The finding may have important implications for the clinical treatment of fear-related disorders.
Previous studies have managed to block fear memories from being stored fully in the brain. However, many of the previous methods used compounds that are toxic to humans and were only demonstrated to last over days. Elizabeth Phelps and colleagues sidestep these compounds by taking advantage of the memory phase known as ‘reconsolidation’ where old memories can undergo change.
After training subjects to be fearful of a visual stimulus, the team introduced new ‘safe’ information while reactivating the fearful memories. By doing this they managed to ‘rewrite’ the negative thoughts associated with the stimulus. They show that the effects of this type of intervention last for about a year and don’t seem to affect memories that aren’t reactivated at the time of introducing the new information. They conclude that old fear memories can be updated with non-fearful information during the time that reconsolidation occurs.
The finding has important implications for the clinical treatment of fear-related disorders, and suggests that the timing of specific therapeutic interventions may have a large role in their success.
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