You can forget the unhappy past: study

On Reuters today:

Researchers have confirmed what common wisdom has long held — that people can suppress emotionally troubling memories — and said on Thursday they have sketched out how the brain accomplishes this.

They said their findings might lead to a way to help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety to gain control of debilitating memories.

In the test, parts of each volunteer’s prefrontal cortex — the brain’s control center for complex thoughts and actions — were activated. This seemed to direct a decrease of activity in the visual cortex, where images are usually processed.

The hippocampus, where memories are formed and retrieved, and amygdala, the emotion hub, were later also deactivated.

The article continues on to discuss the possibility of using this technique to reduce the intensity of painful memories or perhaps even block them. The study confirms–at least in part–the theory of repressed/recovered memories. Many people recover memories of past abuse in their later years. There is a certain amount of controversy surrounding this issue since many of the memories are recovered through hypnosis, and could potentially be the result of implanted suggestions. This new study provides some needed credibility to the theory that memories can be repressed and later recovered.

It does not address another aspect of repressed/recovered memories, which is why some people repress memories while others do not. It is possible that this question could be in part related to disassociative identity disorder, at least in the way that it initially begins. Perhaps it is too early to go off on tangents, but it would be an interesting and potentially informative tangent to explore.

Personally, I have a fairly decent recollection of stressful events. In fact, the more stressful the event the more likely I am to recall it in detail. I do not believe I have outright blocked any memories, though I would be unaware if I had done so anyway. There are some gaps in my memories, certain points in where it takes a great deal of thinking to recall the events. Occasionally, I do “zone out” or disassociate from my present state. It can be best described as being aware that I have done something, but being unable to recall specifically how it was done.

This occurred once while I was walking from a bookstore to another store some distance away. I recall leaving the first store and spotting a landmark that was close to the other store, but not the walk itself. I know I did it, but I cannot recall the entire process. That disassociation may be related to the subject of the article.

It would be interesting to know if this process could be reversed. Could something similar be used to aid people who have suffered memory loss, such people with Alzheimer’s?

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