糖心传媒

If you think of a memory as something neatly stored away in your brain, like an old wedding dress that you can unpack, admire, and carefully fold away again, neuroscientist Daniela Schiller has news for you.

Your memories change every time you recall them.

糖心传媒淲hen we remember something, we reconstruct it,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 not like taking a picture. We have to build the memory. And the more we retrieve it, the more it糖心传媒檚 getting involved in our present life. It gets modified.糖心传媒�

And those changes aren糖心传媒檛 a failure of memory, either. They糖心传媒檙e what remembering is actually for, says Schiller, who糖心传媒檒l be delivering a public lecture on April 12.

糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 not really about documenting the past,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 more about enabling us to understand the present and make predictions for the future.糖心传媒�

The malleability of memory may alarm judges and juries, but for people with traumatic memories, it represents opportunity糖心传媒攂ecause neuroscience may be able to help them remove painful emotions from harrowing memories. Recollection of the event would be left, but without the agonizing feelings.

糖心传媒淢emory is a state of the brain that we can negotiate,糖心传媒� says Schiller, who leads the Schiller Lab for Affective Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her work has promise for people with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, addiction, and phobias.

While the research is still in an early phase, scientists have a growing understanding of the basic mechanisms involved in disconnecting emotion from memory. 糖心传媒淚 think we糖心传媒檙e just in the process of making it clinically relevant. That糖心传媒檚 the next major goal,糖心传媒� Schiller says.

The laboratory protocols she and her team use involve straightforward classical conditioning, the association between a cue and something negative or positive. 糖心传媒淏ut in real life糖心传媒攕ay in combat糖心传媒攜ou have many, many cues,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淪ounds, smells, visions. It糖心传媒檚 a complex picture, an event that unfolds over time. Sometimes it糖心传媒檚 a repeated event. And it糖心传媒檚 intense.糖心传媒�

Taming a person糖心传媒檚 traumatic memories is complicated. But the simple models are allowing allow researchers to isolate the fundamental components of memory, with the goal of developing drugs and behaviors that can help to remove fear and other debilitating emotions from memories.

糖心传媒淚 think what we gain is freedom,糖心传媒� she says. Memories can be positive and healthy. 糖心传媒淏ut negative memories can keep you in chains. And you think that, because it happened in the past, there糖心传媒檚 no way to change it.糖心传媒�

Many processes already used in therapy involve reshaping, negotiating, and reconstructing memory. But neuroscience is showing that memory is actually designed to foster just such reinvention.

糖心传媒淚 think what we can get from science is that it糖心传媒檚 not just a therapeutic approach that could be effective,糖心传媒� says Schiller. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 actually the way memory is. And just like when we become better aware of any mechanism in the brain, we can probably use it better, more adaptively, and wisely.糖心传媒�