NEW YORK: According to researchers, “lost” memories can be found again — in mice, anyway.A new study, published in the journal Science, details how researchers were able to reactivate suppressed memories. This shows that memories lost after brain trauma, or retrograde amnesia, could be just a case of memory retrieval issues than the physical loss of a memory, writes The Washington Post.
The researchers used optogenetics to make this discovery. Using this process, scientists pick specific neurons and introduce a special protein to them through an engineered virus. Once the protein has been introduced to brain cells, the cells become sensitive to blue light, allowing researchers to control the on and off switch for particular neurons.
In order to test their theory, researchers created bad memories within mice by shocking the mice multiple times while they were within one particular enclosure. They then selected the neurons stimulated when the mice had to relive the memory, which was done by presenting them to the ‘shock enclosure’. The selected neurons, collectively known as a “memory engram,” were engineered to be light sensitive in a new set of mice. These mice were then trained with the same shock therapy to create bad memories.
The scientists then engineered the effects of retrograde amnesia in these mice. Some mice were injected with a drug, called anisomycin, that tampers with the formation of memory. As predicted, the mice ceased to be afraid of the shock enclosure. Their fear response returned when researchers used the blue light to activate the neurons holding the repressed memory.
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