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Researchers at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center say they've prompted rodents to forget painful memories by injecting them with a drug called ZIP, which interferes with a neural substance integral memory functions. So it's only a matter of time before you'll be able to pop a pill and forget all about that photo of the Chinese guy's tumors or Lindsay Lohan's awkward appearance with Lily Allen! The Times has a feature on the Brooklyn lab today, as part of a series on brain research. According to Dr. Todd Sacktor, mice who had previously learned to avoid an electrified area of their cage forgot all about the zap zone after a dose of ZIP, and rats forgot about their disgust for a taste that had made them sick. Sacktor believes the drug could one day be used effectively with humans, and a variant of it could also enhance memory. But Dr. Steven E. Hyman, a neurobiologist at Harvard, is urging caution: "We know that people already use smart drugs and performance enhancers of all kinds, so a substance that actually improved memory could lead to an arms race... This possibility of memory editing has enormous possibilities and raises huge ethical issues."
Neuroscientists in Brooklyn Erasing Memories With Drugs
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Why did you post a link that ABC News slideshow?!!! Now won't be able to eat or sleep for weeks.
Drugs do work very well for erasing memories. I erased most of mine with heavy marijuana use.
Whoa!
Did Salvador Dali create that Chinese guy?
Mets fans will need alot of those pills after this season. Go Yankees!!!!
Captain Kirk would say something like,
"Our memories (dramatic pause) make us who we are. As humans (pause) we need to (pause) make mistakes so that we may one day learn from them. The pain in our lives (pause) serves as a contrast (pause) to the better times. How can we justify pleasure (dramatic pause, wide open eyes, head turned, constipated look on his face) without pain?"
and this is proof positive that god and souls do not exist and religion is a crock. If i can stick a piece of steel into your brain, scoop some of the grey matter out and make you forget your mom and pop and that you liked the taste of juicy fruit then your soul and memory are transient and not eternal. It's a ship of theseus paradox.
Good point. How depressing. Wish those pills will be out soon.
wait...juicy fruit tastes like something?
yeah, like rainbows. or is that skittles?
And if we're truly lucky, maybe it'll also help rub out inane soap boxing as a personality defect as well.
It's only inane if you believed that Jesus wasn't gay.
If it can target specific memories, can I please have any in my brain that remembers snippets of the movie Catwoman removed?
Also, I wonder how many creeps will use this drug on a girl the day after they slipped rohypnol into their drink?
If those pills can help me forget the fact that I live in a War Criminal nation that subsidizes its economy thru international securities fraud THEN I'LL TAKE TEN, PLEASE.
Anybody see the Family Guy episode where Peter has no bones?
I'm completely shocked that there's been no mention of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
As exciting as this is, its difficult to imagine this getting to human trials within a decade. Sadly, a memory "arms race" would profit the necessary profit motive to explore improvement.