Researchers have made an important neuroscientific discovery that sounds like something straight out of the Jim Carrey movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”: The ability to block the brain’s tendency to spontaneously recall traumatic memories. Steven Laviolette of Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry has contributed to the revelation of “a common mechanism in a region of the brain called the pre-limbic cortex” which functions to “control the recall of memories linked to both aversive, traumatic experiences associated with PTSD and actively rewarding memories linked to drug addiction”. The researchers claim to have discovered method of actively suppressing the brain’s tendency to recall both memories, making the discovery a huge jump for the treatment of PTSD and drug addiction. According to Laviolette:
“These findings are very important in disorders like PTSD or drug addiction. One of the common problems associated with these disorders is the obtrusive recall of memories that are associated with the fearful, emotional experiences in PTSD patients. And people suffering with addiction are often exposed to environmental cues that remind them of the rewarding effects of the drug. This can lead to drug relapse, one of the major problems with persistent addictions to drugs such as opiates…So what we’ve found is a common mechanism in the brain that can control recall of both aversive memories and memories associated with rewarding experience in the case of drug addiction”
D1, a dopamine receptor of the brain,prevents recall of both positive and negative memories when stimulated, he says:
“The precise mechanisms in the brain that control how these memories are recalled are poorly understood, and there are presently no effective treatments for patients suffering from obtrusive memories associated with either PTSD or addiction…If we are able to block the recall of those memories, then potentially we have a target for drugs to treat these disorders…In the movie, ‘Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind,’ they attempted to permanently erase memories associated with emotional experiences…The interesting thing about our findings is that we were able to prevent the spontaneous recall of these memories, but the memories were still intact. We weren’t inducing any form of brain damage or actually affecting the integrity of the original memories”
