MEMORYALTERATION
PreetPandit
ResearchScholarsProgram,HarvardStudentAgencies.IncollaborationwithLearnwithLeaders
ABSTRACT
Inmedia,manypeopleviewmemory-alteringtechnologiesassciencefictionorusedformanipulativereasons,buttheirimpactsandimplementationsaredeeperthan that.Whenwefacetraumaticexperiencesandevents,ourbraintakesalongtimetorecover Therearemanydifferentsideeffectsandcopingmechanismswhichare stillbeingresearchedandobserved.Someofthesesideeffectsgoasfarasunintentionallyalteringyourmemory Dependingontheseverity,itcouldreducenormal braincapacityandactivity Ifweweretoalterthememoriesofsaidtraumaticevent,itwouldserveasdamagecontrolandpossiblyreversesomeofthedestructiveand negativeinfluencesitcouldhaveonourbrains.
KEYWORDS:Memory-altering,PTSD,amygdala,hippocampus,prefrontalcortex,neurogenesis.
INTRODUCTION
When a person faces traumatic events, their brain usually represses memories that significantly reduces brain capacity and activity Neuroscientists have researchedanddiscoveredthattherearemanyreasonsastowhyourbrainisn't abletoprocesstheseeventsandwhyourmemorycanbeoneofthecasualtiesofit (Brito,2019).Therehavebeenmanysolutions,liketherapy However,noteveryone would find therapy beneficial due to the differences in their situations and personalities.Thisraisesthequestion:ifourbraincanunintentionallyalterour memories,whycan'tweintentionallydoittohelpus?
Materials&Methods
Ÿ Primary:underprimaryresearch,Aneurologisthasbeeninterviewedfora more professional opinion on memory alteration and its applications in thefuture.
Ÿ Secondary:Scholarlyarticlesaboutthebrainanditsfunctionswereconsulted.Informationwasobtainedthroughsecondarysourcesbutwasdiscussedandevaluatedthroughprimarysources.
BackgroundInformation
1. Whydoesourbrainaltermemories?
Ourbrainislikeaprocessor,itprocessesinformationandmemoriesand storesvaluablemomentsandpiecesofdata.Whenthis“processor”faces anunfamiliarobstacle(traumaticeventofsomesort)itglitchesandcannotcomprehendwhat'shappening.Asaresult,ourbraintendstounintentionallyalterourmemoriesregardingthatspecificeventwhichmay havecausedharmtoyouorfrightenedyou.Whythishappenscouldbe formanyreasonsstillbeingstudied,suchasanimpulseorareactionis similartotheflightorfightreaction.Itcouldalsosimplybeone'sbrain tryingtoprotectthemfromsaidtrauma.
When Cortisol and other stress hormones likeAdrenaline significantly increase due to traumatic events, it harms specific regions of our brain liketheprefrontalcortex,hippocampusandamygdala(Arnsten,2009).
2. Understandingthebrain
Virtually,weuseourentirebrainonadailybasistofunctionandconduct dailytasks.Justlikeeverything,ourbrainisalsoapartofasystemandis asystemitself.Evenifonepartweretofail,itwouldbeveryhardforthe restofthebraintocopeandadjust.Therearethreemainareaswhichget influenced by PTSD; the amygdala (processing of negative emotions), thehippocampus(“memorycenter”)andtheprefrontalcortex(cognitive functions)(QueenslandBrainInstitute,n.d.).
Amygdala: The amygdala is a small almond-shaped organ located underthehemispheresofourbrain.Itisinchargeofprocessingnegative emotions and activating the flight or fight response.The fight or flight responseisactivatedwhenourbrainsensesdanger;it'sactivatedtoprotectusandprepareustoeitherfightorflee.Theamygdalaalsohasapart inmemoryasitstoresmemorieswhichsupportorcontainnegativeemotionssuchasfear(Guy-Evans,2023).
Thehippocampus: hippocampus intricatebrainsystemwhich islocatedinthetemporallobe.Itisassociatedwithmemoryandlearning asitisinvolvedinstoringlong-termmemory Thehippocampusissupposedly responsible for making these memories resistant to forgetting butthatisafunctionwhichisarguedupon.Ifanyharmisinflictedupon thehippocampus,itcancauseamnesia,whichcausesyoutoforgetmemoriesandpreventyoufrommakingnewones(Spanòetal.,2020).
According to research, our hippocampus can shrink due to excessive stress.Thiscanpotentiallybereversedandrepairedwiththehelpofactivatingneurogenesisandneuroplasticity(EunJooetal,2015;Bremner, 2006).
PrefrontalCortex:Thepre-frontalcortexhasabigroleincognitiveand control functions. It also controls some hormones like dopamine, controls prospective memory and is a place where short-term memory is stored(EunJooetal,2015).
3. WhatisNeurogenesis?
Neurogenesis can be described as the creation of new neurons. Many studies have shown that neurogenesis can help improve learning capabilitiesandmemoryrecollectionasitstimulatesthehippocampus(Klein et al., 2017). Neurogenesis can be stimulated by aerobic exercises and learningnewthings;thiscouldhelpimprovememoryrecollection(Sukyuetal.,2015).
Thepurposeofthispaperistoanswerthefollowing:
Ÿ Ismemoryalterationpossible?
Ÿ Whatistherelationbetweenemotionandmemory?
4. Differenttypesofmemories.
Thereare4maintypesofmemories(Kleinetal.,2020).
Copyright©2023,IERJ.Thisopen-accessarticleispublishedunderthetermsoftheCreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial4.0InternationalLicensewhichpermitsShare(copyandredistributethematerialinany mediumorformat)andAdapt(remix,transform,andbuilduponthematerial)undertheAttribution-NonCommercialterms.
Short-termMemory
LongTermMemory
Short-termmemoryisremembering acertainamountofinformationin smallintervalsoftime(usually seconds)
Long-termmemorystoresspecific piecesofinformationofaneventfor longperiodsoftime.Itcanalsotake importantpiecesofinformation fromshort-termmemoryandcreate long-lastingmemoriesfromthem
WorkingMemory
SensoryMemory
Research&Findings
TraumaandMemory,What'sthelink?
Whenyouareworkingonatask, workingmemoryiswhenyou remembersomethingrelatedtowhat youarefocusingon.
Sensorymemorycomesfromthe fivesensoryfeelings;sound,feel, smell,sight,andtaste.Sensory memorieslastafewsecondsandthe leastandfocusonyourabilityto process,understandandrecallwhat youseeandtheenvironmentaround you.
Weknowthatourhippocampuscanshrink;thisiscausedduetoexcessivestress causedbyavarietyofreasons.Studiesshowthatglobally,72%ofpeoplearefacing stress (Patterson, 2022). Even though there may be many reasons for this stress,themajorityofitisusuallycausedbytrauma,andtheymaybesuffering fromPTSD(post-traumaticstressdisorder).5outofevery100adultssufferfrom PTSD(U.S.DepartmentofVeteranAffairs,2023),andgiventhesestatistics,we cancometoaconsensusthatbecauseofPTSD,wecanloseourmemory
One common but very destructive coping mechanism for mental illnesses like PTSDisdenial.Manypeopleliveindenialtorunawayfromthetrauma;thisis knownasmemoryrepression.Whentraumaistoomuchortooseveretohandle, peoplerepressordisassociatethemselvesfromthespecificmemory Thisisone ofthemaincausesofmemoryloss(Hanson-Baiden,2022).Inadditiontothat, researchershavediscoveredthatyoucandevelopPTSDbecauseofrepressinga memory and that you don't have to remember the traumatic memory itself to develop severe cases of PTSD. Memory repression is a defense mechanism to protectyourbrainfromharm,it'ssimilartothepurposeoftheamygdalainthe brainexceptmemoryrepressionisawaytodetachyourselfandrunaway Thisis harmfulformanyreasons,foroneitcausesmemoryloss,butitalsohasharmful symptoms which you wouldn't be able to notice because of living in constant denialandfearofacceptance.Anotherharmfulimpactisthatifthismemoryis somehowtriggeredinthefuture,itcouldhavedevastatingimpactsonnotonly yourmentalhealthbutalsoyourphysicalhealth,dependingontheseverityofthe reaction.
Asdiscussed,PTSDisveryharmfultoourbrains.PTSDcanleadtobraindamageandobstaclesinbraindevelopmentandgrowth. TheproblemisPTSDbut howdowecopewithit?Theworldhashadmanydifferentsolutionstowardsthis problem.Aslowbutprogressiveoneistherapy Addictiveanddestructive'solutions'includedrugsandalcohol.Eventhoughtherapyhasbeenusedastheprimarytreatment(perhapstheonlytreatment)forPTSDandothermentalillnesses foralongtime,itdoesnotnecessarilyworkforallpatients.Therapyisslowandit takes time, and despite its 75% success rate (Parekh & Givon, 2019), it's not applicable to everyone. Therapy is everyone's first option because there aren't anymore,butwhatifmemoryalterationcouldbeone?
MemoryAlteration is much faster in comparison to therapy and it could yield moredefinitiveresults.Wejustneedtofigureouthowwecanapplyit.Another coping Mechanism for PTSD and other mental illnesses is our brain inadvertentlyalteringourmemoriestoprotectourselves,it'shealthierincomparisonto repressingthememories,butstillharmful.Researchshowsthattheemotionswe are feeling during an event can influence the memory of the event (Hermans, 2014).IfourAmygdalagetsoverloadedwithnegativeemotions,doesthismean thatthoseemotionscaninfluencethatmemory?Accordingtostudies,whenwe get emotional, our amygdala secretes adrenaline which helps us remember events or things that happened or occurred in that specific time period more clearlyandsharper(Wendt&Begum,2022).So,inasituationwhereadrenaline is secreted and you remember a very traumatic event at a rate which is much clearerthanyournormalmemory,wouldyourbrainautomaticallyalterittoprotectyou?Thismaybeautomatic,ornatural.Theamygdalaprocessesmainlynegative emotions. Some intense emotions such as anger, fear or even sadness are sometimesthecauseofmemorylossastheycouldleadtostress,thiscouldcause anoverloadofemotionsfortheamygdalaandleadtoactualalterationornatural erasureofsomeemotionswhicharelinkedtospecificallyintensenegativeemotions.Withthesefindings,wecanarriveatoneviablepoint:ifourbraincanalter
memorieswithoutusknowing,thatmeansthatwecantoo.Weonlyneedtofigureouthowto,andhowtocontrolit.
Discussion
Interviewsnippetwithneurologist“DrAshutoshShetty”
AccordingtoDrShetty,“Memorycanbealtered,it'spossible.Memoryisprocessedfromthevisualandverbalstimuluswhichgetsencodedinyourbrainand ifyougetpropersleep,itgetsstoredinoneofthememoryareastherearemany environmental factors which help in encoding and storing memory Memory encodingisdependentonyourstorageandyourattentionspan.Ifyourattention spanisgood,thenshort-termmemorycanbemanipulatedbutifyourencodingor retrieval storage is good, then, long-term memory can be more easily manipulated. MemoryAlterationas a treatmentfor PTSD depends on what symptoms theyarefacing,ifit'smorebehavioral,thenitwon'thelpthatmuchbutit'llhelp themwithdealingwithstressdisorders”.
Memorycanbealtered.However,toreachthatpoint,weneedtounderstandhow memoryisencoded,andhowwecanhackit.Whenweformanewmemory,the informationisdirectedtowardsthehippocampus.Inthehippocampus,itlinksall therelativepartsofinformationandcreatesanewmemorybycreatingnewsynapses. There are 3 types of memory encoding; Visual,Acoustic and Semantic. Thestrengthofthatmemoryisdependentonenvironmentalfactorsandwhether ourshort-termmemoryorlong-termmemoryisstronger
Morals&Ethics
Alltechnologycanbemisusedandabused.Ifmemoryalterationtechnologyis furtherdeveloped,itispossiblethatitcouldbemanipulatedormisused.Toprevent this, it should be used for therapeutic purposes only (treating mental illnesses).Isitethicallycorrecttoaltermemories?Ifapatientisunwillingtoalter theirmemories,thenitisunethicalbutifapatientgivesconsent,thistechnology wouldonlybeusedformedicinalpurposes.
Thistechnologycanhelpvictimsoftraumaandmentalillnessesdealwiththeir emotionalbaggageinaquickermannerwithmoreeffectiveresults.Depending on their symptoms and severity, the different types of memory can be altered (short/long-termmemories).
Conclusion
Wecanconcludewithtwomaintakeaways;1)memoryalterationispossible2)it canbeusedtotreatPTSDandothermentalillnessesdependingonthesymptoms faced. Although it can't completely reverse the behavioral damage which has alreadybeencausedbythetrauma,itcanhelpdealwiththestressandnegative emotionsandfeelingscausedbythetrauma. WiththislinkbetweenPTSDand memory, we can see causation and correlation between these variables. Even thoughtheinfluencescan'tcompletelybechanged,Memoryalterationasatreatmentwouldbemuchmoreefficientthanourbrain'sowncopingmechanismsfor dealingwithtrauma;Memoryrepressionwouldbemuchquickerthanoneofthe onlytreatmentswecurrentlyhaveavailable;therapy Sinceouremotionsinfluenceourmemories,iftherewasasituationwhereapersonwasfeelingnegative emotionsduetoaspecificeventwhichoccurredinashortperiodoftime,wecan figure out how to automatically alter memories based on set conditions.Anythingwhichcanbecodedcanbehacked.Wearestillfarfromdevelopingtechnologieslikethisfortreatments,but,thisinformationitselfissubstantialenough totryandfigureoutmoreaboutmemorystorageandhowourbrainfunctions.We already know that stress and memory are related and to an extent of stress, it couldnegativelyaffectmemory However,thelinkbetweenthosetwoconcepts itsmoreimportantandthelink,orsolution,mayaswellbeMemoryAlteration.
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