"Our brains, Ramirez reveals, braid together "episodic" memories of events and "emotional" memories of the feelings associated with them. By targeting multiple brain areas, including the cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala, neuroscientists can now disentangle, activate, alter or erase them (a la the movie, Internal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). That said, the older the memory, the harder it is to extinguish."
""Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased," Macbeth prayed. "Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow /Raze out the written troubles of the brain /And with some sweet oblivious antidote /Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff /Which weighs upon the heart?" During the last 30 years, Steve Ramirez indicates, neuroscientists have brought that wish closer to a reality."
Neuroscience has pinpointed how and where memories are encoded, stored, and retrieved, enabling precise manipulation of memory traces. Optogenetics uses millisecond light pulses to control neural activity, allowing scientists to activate, edit, create, or extinguish memories by targeting cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala. The method shows promise for treating anxiety, PTSD, and dementia, though older memories resist modification and may never be fully erased. Practical work arises alongside personal context that includes immigrant family history, experiences of prejudice, a near-death escape at the 2013 Boston Marathon, collaboration with researcher Xu Liu, and struggles with alcoholism, illustrating ethical and emotional dimensions.
Read at Psychology Today
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