Memory-altering drugs may rewrite your past
Drugs that rid people of terrifying memories could be a lifeline for many. But could they have a sinister side too? “REMEMBER September 11, 2001, when you first heard the news about the World Trade Center attacks? Remember where you were when you saw those images? Now, think back to September 10. It was only […]
Drugs that rid people of terrifying memories could be a lifeline for many. But could they have a sinister side too?
“REMEMBER September 11, 2001, when you first heard the news about the World Trade Center attacks? Remember where you were when you saw those images? Now, think back to September 10. It was only one day before. Remember that day? Anything at all?”
Roger Pitman, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, is asking an updated version of the well-known Kennedy assassination question to make a telling point. While few of us can remember an ordinary day four years ago, for many of us the events of 11 September are indelibly etched on our minds. Pitman is demonstrating that the brain handles memories of traumatic or emotionally charged events in a different way to neutral ones – they are seared into the brain more deeply, and remembered for longer.
There’s a good reason why this might be. From an evolutionary perspective, it pays to attach special importance to emotionally charged events (…)
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