| Forget About It! No, Really, I Have This Pill... |
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These days science is always coming up with new and exciting things. Well, technically, science has always been doing that. But lately it seems that we're now dipping our curious fingers into worlds that were previously unknown. Nanotechnology, quantum physics, theoretical physics, nuclear physics, biotechnology, quantum computing, neuroscience, and more. But let me focus on something that has recently come to my attention: memory loss. Now, memory loss isn't anything new. It can happen as a result of physical trauma, after-effect of anesthesia, or even a side-effect of a simple medication. But what I'm talking about is intentional memory loss. There's a drug currently on the market called Propanolol. This drug was developed in the late 1950s, primarily for treating hypertension. What happened, apparently, is that patients begin complaining that as a side effect, they were experiencing memory loss. Let me explain (for those wonderfully interested parties), exactly what is happening here. When you experience intense emotion, such as joy or terror, your body is basically flooded with a myriad of hormones, which come from your adrenal glands. One of these hormones is adrenaline. As adrenaline flows through your brain, it passes over a portion of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala basically helps to "write" memories to your brain's hard drive. Think of adrenaline like the ink in the amygdala's pen. The more adrenaline passes over the amygdala, the stronger and more intense that "inscribed" memory becomes. Now, one of Propranolol's effects is to reduce the amount of adrenaline rush that you experience. Thus, providing relief for someone with hypertension. However, if there is less adrenaline flowing throughout your body, then presumably there is also less adrenaline flowing over the amygdala. So then, why the memory loss? Recently, the neuroscience field has made an amazing discovery. Where previously it was thought that only new and fresh memories were "fluid" in nature, it is now a possibility that even long-term memories can re-enter into a "fluid" state when they are recalled. It turns out, when you recall an old memory, your brain pulls it out of storage and back into the "buffer", as it were. Then, once your brain has recalled the memory, it writes the memory back into storage again. It is during this period of buffer that Propranolol works its magic. Consider a test performed on a young girl with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). She experienced a violent rape, and had trouble trusting anybody. She was living a life of suffering, and looking over her shoulder. She was given Propranolol, and told to write down on a piece of paper, in vivid detail, her traumatic experience. After a few days of treatment, she claimed to feel much better and could no longer remember the extremely emotional and stressful details of that fateful day. So what happened? As she recalled the intense details of her experience, her brain was "buffering" the memory back into a fluid state. Recalling a traumatic incident is much like reliving it, as you recall the event and place yourself back into it. So as the girl recalled her memory, she must have had large amounts of adrenaline rushing through her body again. The Propranolol was working to block the adrenaline, and in turn reduce the amount flowing over her amygdala, among other areas. Thus, when her brain began storing the memory once again, it would have stored it less "intensely", possibly with less detail and emotional depth. Once she recalls the memory on her next day of treatment, she would be remembering it with less intesity, and with less adrenaline. With less of a rush, the Propranolol would presumably be able to block more adrenaline than before, and her brain would in turn store the memory with even less emotional impact. Now, the exact details of how this works may be shoddy to me, but I am no doctor. However, one cannot deny that there is something there, and neuroscience has certainly made the decision to pursue these studies. Sometimes, it's truly amazing what we as humans can discover and invent, and other times, it's just scary. So which one is this? Certainly, with the example I've given above, this looks like a good treatment for those suffering from PTSD and other emotional disorders triggered by past traumatic experiences. But what does the future hold for this technology? What are the possible consequences of this advancement? What happens when we abuse this ability; Will we be doomed to our own success? Only time will tell. I want to hear from you guys, what do YOU think about this? Would you use it on yourself? |
| Last Updated on Sunday, 08 February 2009 05:02 |