New Drugs Can Shape Memories

Researchers may be on the verge of developing a chemical compound that can be used to delete unwanted memories. This drug would be extremely beneficial in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and possibly drug addiction. Researchers at Emory University conducted promising studies on mice with a drug identified as SR-8993. This compound acts on the brain’s opioid receptors with the intent of preventing a fear memory from forming. It was found that mice on SR-8993were less likely to display PTSD-like symptoms after being placed in a high stressed situation for some time. Another drug, Latrunculin A, was shown to be fairly successful in deleting or subduing rats’ memories. In this study, the rats were subjected to methamphetamine and then, two days later, were administered Latrunculin A. Some of the rats did not seek out meth when given the chance showing positive results for the drug.

I found this article interesting given our recent endeavors in the treatment of PTSD and drug addiction. These drugs could be an alternative treatment to the nanobots we designed or they could be used to improve our bots. Neurophysiology will undoubtedly prove to become an exciting field in the coming years.

Source: http://www.popsci.com/article/science/how-scientists-are-learning-shape-our-memory?dom=PSC&loc=slider&lnk=1&con=spotless-minds