It is possible to enhance positive memories or suppress negative ones: Study

By artificially activating memory cells in the bottom part of the brain’s hippocampus, negative memories can become even more debilitating. Washington D.C. [USA], May 27 (ANI): New research suggests that memories are pliable if you know which regions of the brain to stimulate. According to a study, these findings could someday enable personalised treatment for people with post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ), depression , and anxiety . Researchers believe that a small structure in the brain could hold the keys to future therapeutic techniques for treating mental health disorders and someday allow clinicians to enhance positive memories or suppress negative ones. Inside our brains, a cashew-shaped structure called the hippocampus stores the sensory and emotional information that makes up memories, whether they be positive or negative ones. No two memories are exactly alike, and likewise, each memory we have is stored inside a unique combination of brain cells that contain all the environmental and emotional information associated with that memory. The hippocampus itself, although small, comprises many different subregions all working in tandem to recall the elements of a specific memory. "Many psychiatric disorders, especially PTSD , are based on the idea that after there’s a really traumatic experience, the person isn’t able to move on because they recall their fear over and over again," says Briana Chen, first author of the paper. In their study, researchers show how traumatic memories–such as those at the root of disorders like PTSD –can become so emotionally loaded. By artificially activating memory cells in the bottom part of the brain’s hippocampus, negative memories can become even more debilitating. In contrast, stimulating memory cells in the top part of the hippocampus can strip bad memories of their emotional oomph, making them less traumatic to remember. The findings were published in the Journal […]

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