Memories can be defined as the human ability to store, encode and recall information and past experiences in the brain. This ability is very significant in our day to day lives since it can define who you are and what you've been through, and also shape your behaviors and view of things such as people and the world. Feelings can also be associated with memories and can affect how you look at certain situations and decisions. Recalling a past experience also comes with emotions and how you feel about that situation.
Everyone has memories in which they feel a sense of happiness and fulfillment or sadness and tragedy. Now imagine a tragic memory in your life and reflect on how that memory may have affected you. These dreadful memories affect people mentally and can cause a change in behavior or lifestyle. For example, if you're trying to learn how to ski for the first time and you break something during that experience you might be afraid to ski again. Recalling tragic experiences can have a more drastic effect on a person than just not wanting to experience that situation again. These traumatic memories have a possibility of triggering panic attacks or depression in individuals. This causes problems to arise in one's everyday life and no one wants to suffer a psychological order because of a tragic event that occurred in one's life.
What if there was a way to adjust those emotions relating to that memory or even treat the brain to stop triggering psychological disorders when recalling a certain memory. Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have experimented and discovered secrets on how the brain connects memories to emotions and how these emotions may be changed. This was possible by using a technique that uses light to switch neurons on and off. Although their research and experimentation was done on mice, their results can eventually translate for human use and provide more efficient and effective therapies for individuals with psychological disorders such as panic attacks, depression, and anxiety.
In relation to this research, Dr. Stewart Shankman experimented and researched on the sensitivity of individuals with psychological disorders to both threat and reward. His study specifically examined if heightened sensitivity to threat and reduced sensitivity to reward are specific to individuals with panic disorder and major depressive disorder. In order to investigate this, he performed the NPU-threat task and slot task to measure and assess how the individual anticipates threat and reward. In order to get the results, they measured things such as EEG data, the number of startled blinks, and the emotional rating of the individual and how they rated their own level of anxiety during the tasks. The results from this study suggests that a heightened sensitivity to both predictable and unpredictable threat was related to panic disorder while a reduced sensitivity to reward was related to major depressive disorder. His study states that there is a relationship between individuals psychological orders, specifically panic and depression disorders, and how they react and recognize certain stressful events or rewarding situations.
In the article “Using Light Technique, Scientists Find Dimmer Switch for Memories in Mice” by Pam Belluck, she explains how bad memories have a possibility of being changed to be less negative and reduce stress relating to that memory. In the experiment, the M.I.T scientists examined mice with labeled neurons in the brain which had a light sensitive protein. They then used pulses of light to switch cells on and off, a technique also known as optogenetics. This allowed them to identify neuron patterns that were activated when the mice created either a positive or negative memory. Negative memories were associated with a mild shock to the feet of the mice, while a positive memories were associated with being allowed to spend time with female mice.
In order to alter the negative memories, mice that had been shocked were put in with the female mice and then the scientists used the light to activate the negative memory of the shock. From this, the mice became less fearful when they in the place that they had been conditioned to remember shock. This meant that the negative memory became less negative as was changed through the use of activating the negative memory with light while the mice were in with females, a positive memory.
Another discovery was made during this experiment on how neurons worked in two significant brain areas, the amygdala and hippocampus. The amygdala links emotions to memory while the hippocampus is involved with creating new memories and encoding details. This experiment allowed them to see that the neurons in the hippocampus can be changed to make a traumatic memory less negative. However, the neurons in the amygdala did nothing and they concluded that the neurons were fixed to reflect positive and negative emotions.
These findings can be helpful for the improvement of the techniques used to treat individuals with psychological disorders. Although the M.I.T research was still in its early stages and the current optogenetic techniques are not appropriate for human use, the results and research obtained in this study can provide a lot of information on the development of a drug or treatment for mental illness. If testing was possible in humans, these results could have been combined with Shankman's study of psychological disorders and their sensitivity to reward and threat. If this was possible, Shankman could continue his research using the optogenetic techniques of light and alter the memories of his participants to see if the technique was useful for altering memories and causing panic and depression disorders to trigger less. These studies can help lead to more innovative treatments of mental illnesses and hopefully provide new knowledge of the brain and psychological disorders.
References
Belluck, Pam. "Using Light Technique, Scientists Find Dimmer Switch for Memories in Mice." The New York Times. The New York Times, 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.
Shankman, Stewart A., Brady D. Nelson, Casey Sarapas, E. Jenna Robison-Andrew, Miranda L. Campbell, Sarah E. Altman, Sarah Kate Mcgowan, Andrea C. Katz, and Stephanie M. Gorka. "A Psychophysiological Investigation of Threat and Reward Sensitivity in Individuals with Panic Disorder And/or Major Depressive Disorder."Journal of Abnormal Psychology 122.2 (2013): 322-38. Web.
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