In the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, science has found a way to erase bad memories. The movie ultimately makes the point that our memories form our identities, and as painful as it is to have bad memories, it’s better to keep them. Whether or not some of us should keep our identities remains unanswered.
But for people who have gone through trauma or suffer from issues with mental health, a little bit of memory alteration sounds like it could be a good thing. In a paper published by PNAS, researchers have found a way to help erase—or at least lessen—the sting of bad memories during a multiday procedure.
What researchers found
Researchers had 37 participants look at 48 negative images. Each image was paired with a made-up word. Participants were asked to memorize the image and word pairs. During the night, they were monitored and recorded using electroencephalography EEG.
On the second day, participants were asked to associate half the words from the night before with positive images. Participants went to bed and the researchers played recordings of half of the made-up words while they slept.
On days three and five, the researchers gave participants various assessments to find out what had stuck. They found that participants were more likely to remember positive images for the words that had been associated with both positive and negative images. This suggests that it’s possible to train one’s brain to weaken bad memories by reactivating positive ones.
However, one caveat before getting too excited about rewiring your brain: The researchers warned that their study has limitations, and more follow-up is required. “Viewing aversive/positive images may not mimic typical trauma experiences,” the paper’s authors warned. Well, damn. Who knew?