Many humans suffer from various mental issues, and some of these are down to negative experiences they may have endured, such as witnessing a terrible crime, being involved in a car crash, or any other traumatic situation. Wouldn’t it be nice for these sufferers to be able to end their pain and suffering by simply ‘removing’ the bad memory?
New studies have been carried out by researchers from KU Leuven (Belgium) and the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (Germany) that have confirmed that it is now possible to delete unpleasant memories from our brains by modifying just one single gene. The gene that was modified during the research is called the neuroplastin gene, which helps in brain plasticity.
During the tests, mice were trained to move from one side of a box to the other upon the lighting of the lamp to avoid a foot stimulus. When scientists then turned off the neuroplastin gene, the mice could no longer remember what they had previously learned and were unable to complete the task successfully. The mice that still had the gene switched on were fine in completing the task.
The teams conclusion of the study was that learning and memory deficits are directly related to associative learning and by switching off just one gene it is enough to erase and entire memory from the mind. And, it’s still early days for the team’s research, as they go on to learn how neuroplastin continues to have an effect on other types of learning and how we as humans can best benefit from it.
Source; KuLeuven / Read The Study
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