Health And Fitness: Implanting Memories to Relieve Anxiety, Depression, and other Negative Emotions

Sunday, 6 October 2013

Implanting Memories to Relieve Anxiety, Depression, and other Negative Emotions

Have you ever woke from a dream or nightmare that was so vivid it left you feeling sad, happy, depressed, or anxious all day?

Have you ever shared childhood experiences with a friend or sibling only to find that each of your recollections of the exact same event differed widely?

Finally, have you ever tried to boost the self-esteem of yourself or others by positively reinforcing an event or activity in that person’s life in a manner that exaggerated the impact of that person’s actual contribution to themselves or society?

Well, I can answer ‘yes’ to all three, which got me to thinking while I was on a hike with my dogs yesterday. If it’s that easy to affect one’s perception of reality, why not use this concept (i.e., the implantation of positive memories) as form of therapy, especially for the relief of depression? To a certain extent, hypnosis or brain-washing might accomplish this, but I thought a little harder and Googled Implanted Memories and said to myself, there has to be a more effective way to do this.

The idea of implanting memories makes for a great movie plot, but is it really possible? I think the answer is if not now, maybe sometime soon. My Google search of Implanted Memories led to a ton of hits, mostly related to infamous child abuse cases, such as the high-profile McMartin Preschool Case that dominated the news throughout the 1980s, but then I stumbled upon the work of scientists who are actually experimenting with implanting memories. Researchers have successfully implanted memories in mice, as reported in the journal Science earlier this year.

When the scientific literature starts reporting success in lab rats, you can bet that somewhere in the world, researchers are close to perfecting a technique to use on humans, and if that is true, I can only hope that it will be used for the benefit of society. The idea of implanting positive memories (and even erasing negative memories) seems like it should have application in the treatment of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and other maladies that are rooted in bad memories (as opposed to pure biochemical disorders). In the meantime, the average person is better off creating their own great memories.