New study reveals technique to erase and reactivate memory

A new study has revealed the procedure that allows the scientists to erase and then restore memory.

Roberto Malinow, PhD, said that they can form a memory, erase that memory and then they can also reactivate it according to their requirement by affecting a stimulus that selectively strengthens or weakens synaptic connections and re-stimulating the same nerves with a memory-forming, high-frequency train of optical pulses.

Sadegh Nabavi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Malinow lab explained that they can cause an animal to have fear and then not have fear and then to have fear again by stimulating the nerves at frequencies that strengthen or weaken the synapses.

He further suggested that since their work has proven that they can reverse the processes that weaken synapses, they could probably counteract some of the beta amyloid's effects in Alzheimer's patients.

The study was published in the advanced online issue of the journal Nature.