Research On Mice Could Lead To Erasing Bad Memories For Humans
(CBS) -- Has something ever happened to you that you'd like to forget, but you can't?
One day soon, erasing that bad memory may be accomplished with a flash of light.
CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez shows you how that could be possible.
In the "Men in Black" movies, the characters use a memor- zapping gun. In a California lab, scientists have done it for real, with laser stimulation.
University of California, Davis researcher Brian Wiltgen inserts probes that emit pulses of light deep into the brains of mice, reaching the part of the brain called the hippocampus where memories are stored.
"We were able to turn off a specific memory in mice," Wiltgen says.
Mt. Sinai Hospital neuroscientist Paula Croxson calls the research "a really big deal."
She says Wiltgen's breakthrough could have many other applications, from easing traumatic memories of child abuse to healing the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
"It might be actually possible to take out some of the aspects of the memory that are the most unpleasant by having the person be able to recall the memory but not experience the emotion and the fear associated with it," Dr. Croxson says.
The research, she says, could ultimately lead to innovative treatments for cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease.
"We might be able to reactivate those memories and maybe find a new way for those patients to access the locked-in memories and get some of their memory function back," Croxson says.
That's what Dr. Wiltgen hopes to do in future tests.
"One of the things that we would like to do is to not only flash the light and get the animals to forget, but also stimulate the cells and get the animals to remember," he says.
Wiltgen says his memory eraser is not quite at the level of "Men in Black" just yet. He says we're still decades away from the technique being perfected in humans.