On Mon, 6 Apr 2009, Mike Palij went:
Let me start by pointing out that there is an article in today's
NY Times (04/06/09) by Benedict Carey with the eye-catching
title "Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory". See:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/health/research/06brain.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all>
It's not clear to me how this new finding is different from prior
findings with propranolol
<http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=propranolol+reconsolidation>
It's all fascinating work with a great deal of therapeutic promise,
but the relevant news reports (and the peer-reviewed publications)
usually use the term "memory" in a misleading way. The memories being
"edited" or disrupted are conditioned associations between a stimulus
and an emotional response--for example, a combat veteran's tendency to
become unusually alarmed after hearing a loud noise. I haven't seen
any evidence for disruption of the narrative, episodic experiences
that most of us informally refer to as our "memories."
--David Epstein
[email protected]
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