US scientists: 'We can erase memory in mice'

Many researchers say that the brain is a supercomputer, and now the scientists are taking it one more step further. They claim they can erase the brain memory in mice either selectively or totally.

The Georgia College of Medicine scientists have demonstrated this theory in experiments with mice. They were able to eliminate memories without any damage to the mice’ brains. The scientists found a particular protein that played a crucial role in the formation of memories. By over-producing that particular protein while recalling a specific and painful episode enabled the memory to be completely eliminated in mice without any problems. They suggested similar technique can be translated to humans and make them overcome traumatic events and eliminate post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But it will take years to achieve this translation to humans. In the long run, scientists hope to develop a pill and do the same job by wiping out traumatic and fearful memories in humans according to Dr. Joe Tsien from the Brain and Behavior Discovery Institute in Georgia. But he cautioned that this technology is still years away. He told BBC:

First of all I should emphasize the methodology is not applicable to the human clinical situation yet...However, it does suggest molecular paradigms which we can explore to perhaps achieve the same kind of effects in humans - but those are probably years or decades away.

Dr. Tsien said once the technique is developed successfully, it can be used to treat war veterans suffering from PTSD (and other traumatic memory problems) when they return home from wars.