A new fundamental rule governing memory was recently discovered by a team of scientists, headed by Prof. Yadin Dudai, at Rechovot’s Weizmann Institute of Science. Mark Eisenberg, Tali Kobilo, and Diego Berman were the other members of the research team.
As explained in a Weizmann Institute press release, every memory that we acquire undergoes a process called consolidation immediately after it is formed. Through this process, it becomes impervious to outside stimulation or drugs that would obliterate it. Evidence has lately come to light that a memory is open to disruption for a short period following each time this memory is recalled. However, experiments to test this hypothesis were inconclusive.
Now, Prof. Dudai’s group has identified a new principle guiding the activity of the brain’s memory systems, which sheds light on how memories are recalled and stabilized, and which can explain the puzzling discrepancies in previous findings. This principle delineates the conditions in which the recalled memory again becomes sensitive to “erasure”. The Weizmann team found that while many associated memories can be called up by a single stimulus, only the recalled memory that was dominant over the other associated memories was again made sensitive to being “forgotten” (or to intervention that would deliberately cause such “forgetfulness”) before it was re-stored to long-term memory.
According to the Weizmann Institute, this discovery “is likely to assist in the future in developing new methods of wiping out unwanted memories, and thus of treating some kinds of psychological trauma.”
The results of the study were published today in the scientific journal Science.
As explained in a Weizmann Institute press release, every memory that we acquire undergoes a process called consolidation immediately after it is formed. Through this process, it becomes impervious to outside stimulation or drugs that would obliterate it. Evidence has lately come to light that a memory is open to disruption for a short period following each time this memory is recalled. However, experiments to test this hypothesis were inconclusive.
Now, Prof. Dudai’s group has identified a new principle guiding the activity of the brain’s memory systems, which sheds light on how memories are recalled and stabilized, and which can explain the puzzling discrepancies in previous findings. This principle delineates the conditions in which the recalled memory again becomes sensitive to “erasure”. The Weizmann team found that while many associated memories can be called up by a single stimulus, only the recalled memory that was dominant over the other associated memories was again made sensitive to being “forgotten” (or to intervention that would deliberately cause such “forgetfulness”) before it was re-stored to long-term memory.
According to the Weizmann Institute, this discovery “is likely to assist in the future in developing new methods of wiping out unwanted memories, and thus of treating some kinds of psychological trauma.”
The results of the study were published today in the scientific journal Science.