Erasing memories no longer Science Fiction

Remember that Jim Carrey movie? Eternal Sunshine of the spotless Mind? In which he played a guy who wanted to erase parts of his memory because of a bad relationship? Well, brain scientists at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine, in collaboration with scientists at East China Normal University in Shanghai, have now actually managed to erase new and old memories in mice!

The molecular mechanism is such that specific memories can be erased quickly and without doing damage (at least, that's what they say). Quite impressive, since, well, since many things, but specifically this: In the article to which I refer below it is explained that memory has four distinct stages: learning, consolidation, storage and recall. The trick has always been to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying these different stages but so far researchers lacked techniques to manipulate proteins quickly enough. Not anymore though! Read all about it here.