How Scientists Are Learning To Shape Our Memory
Down Memory Lane The human brain has roughly 100 billion neurons and can store about 2.5 petabytes of information. But where you put your keys last night? The answer is always suspiciously unavailable. Sam Kaplan Roadside bombs, childhood abuse, car accidents—they form memories that can shape (and damage) us for a lifetime. Now, a handful of studies have shown that we’re on the verge of erasing and even rewriting memories. The hope is that this research will lead to medical treatments, especially for addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers have known for decades that memories are unreliable. They’re particularly adjustable when actively recalled because at that point they’re pulled out of a stable molecular state. Last spring, scientists published a study performed at the University of Washington in which adult volunteers...