traumatic memory tagged posts

How to Enhance or Suppress Memories

This is what a bad memory looks like in a mouse brain. The cells glowing green indicate that they are being activated in storing a fear memory. Credit: The Ramirez Group, Boston University

Stimulating different parts of the brain can dial up or down a specific memory’s emotional oomph, study shows. What if scientists could manipulate your brain so that a traumatic memory lost its emotional power over your psyche? Steve Ramirez, a Boston University neuroscientist fascinated by memory, believes that a small structure in the brain could hold the keys to future therapeutic techniques for treating depression, anxiety, and PTSD, someday allowing clinicians to enhance positive memories or suppress negative ones.

Inside our brains, a cashew-shaped structure called the hippocampus stores t...

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