The movie “Eternal Sunshine of aSpotless Mind” is essentially a morality play built around a common
human desire to elevate painful memories by forgetting them. The
movie ultimately finds its denouement by reuniting a couple who,
through artificial precognition, have been exposed to the distressing
memories of a relationship gone sour. Let's willing suspend our
disbelief a bit longer and and attempt to separate the morality from
the science. Would we still choose to forget? How could we forget?
Ought it be modifying a memory, wiping a memory from the grey matter
or cleansing a memory; which one is possible and which one would we
choose? Bear in mind that every time we recall a memory it becomes
tainted in comparison to the “pure” memory which was first
implanted through experience. It follows in that logic, that people
who suffer from amnesia retain the purist memories. Having no
memories doesn't seem to be a valid alternative to unwanted memories.
The inability to remember doesn't necessarily imply the total loss of
memory.
Oliver Sacks, the renowned neurologist, has shown that a man
who was impaired by severe Alzheimer’s remembers little from his
past and is, furthermore, is incapable of forming new memories.
However, the man could recall with astounding accuracy the four
individual parts of a whole host of songs he performed in his
barbershop quartet. Two things are at play here. Firstly, it is the
notion that portions of a memory are summoned from all parts of both
hemispheres of the brain in order to make a new and unique
recollection of a previous memory. In other words, the memory is
altered each time we conjure up the scattered fragments, which, when
pieced together again, is inevitably further from the “truth” of
the initial memory. The second premise at play is tantamount to a
persistent memory anchor. Regardless or despite brain trauma, which
nullifies the construction of new memories or the ability to
recollect vast swaths of old memories, there exists something innate
in the brain which allows for highly particular memories to be
recalled with vivid accuracy. Sacks sees this as a musical rudiment
in the evolutionary hardwiring of the brain. He continues by stating
that rhythm is the basal musical function which all humans have
regardless of their shortfalls in more complex musical abilities like
pitch and harmony. Taken even further, rhythm can be seen to be at
the root of language which is our primary tool in group cohesion and
social function. This is also evidenced in the Deaf who retain an
inherent rhythmic tendency as witnessed by sign language
communication which incorporates the same neural mechanics as spoken
language. Steadfast memories garnered out of fear and trauma are the
memories which we are most likely to want to forget in spite of how
embedded they are in the human experience. Help may be just around
the FDA approval corner. Scientists have discovered in the laboratory
how these fear-eliciting and traumatic memories can be eroded away
and possibly erased from our brains.
Here's how those scientists decoded the
way in which trauma (i.e fear) works on memories and its subsequent
erosion after the application of a particular chemical compound.
During a two week period lab rats underwent intermittent acoustic
stimulus followed by electroshocks (electrified metal floor in their
cage) after the stimulus was introduced. The acoustic stimulus was
introduced followed by a short delay after which the floor was
provided a mild shock. The rats reacted to the stimulus by “freezing”
in a catatonic state as they began to anticipate, in a Pavlovian
behavioral way, the electroshock which was emanating from the floor.
After the two weeks of applying the stimulus the rats were injected
with Ibotenic acid in three areas of the brain; the lateral
hypothalamic, midbrain grey region and the bed nucleus of the stria
terminalis. Although the local neurons were slightly damaged the
fibrous passageways were left intact. The next phase for the
scientists was to test the hypothesis. The rats were now subjected to
the same conditioning from the acoustic stimuli of the previous two
weeks. Amazingly, the rats did not “freeze” during the interim
between the noise and the shocks. The memory of the electroshocks had
apparently been erased from the rat brain. It seems reasonable to
conclude that fear responses can be eroded from the original memory.
The study also concluded that introducing the Ibotenic acid
immediately after a traumatic event could be a way to more
effectively, and possibly permanently, erase fear-eliciting memory.
Again two lines of extrapolation can be
pursued if this method is applied to the human brain. On the one
hand, despite the introduction of the chemical which led to the
eroding of memory as witnessed in the lab rat study, a residue of
memory lingers. This might be because the social and cultural
parameters engender a solidifying function which aids in retaining
the core attributes of the memory. Rituals, trauma, collective mores
and norms, which are all shared by a community and reinforced more
frequently, allow for the memories to endure complete erosion.
Furthermore, it follows the logic postulated by Sacks that the
memories which withstand the erosion process or the reoccurring
evolution of the memories each time they are recollected are the ones
tied most closely to rhythm. Perhaps the person recalling the memory
invokes a series of symbolic phenoms and those in turn are what
assist the memory in retaining its core attributes. In other words,
the rhythmic quality of language is the keystone for holding on to
the purist possible memory. This shouldn't be a social or scientific
bulwark to unlocking the full potential of erasing traumatic memories
for those who wish to forget.
How can one qualify oneself to
affectively forget? In order to modify a preexisting memory it seems
that two components are needed: Ibotenic acid and fear-eliciting
trauma. Applying the chemical will be supportive in altering the
traumatic memories which are recalled. What if we were to manufacture
this drug and dispense it whenever unpleasant memories popped up in
our mind's eye? Bad day at the office: gone. The nagging morose
feelings associated with a romantic break up: gone. A particularly
unscrupulous event perpetrated by local, state or federal government:
gone. That last one might be in the realm of pulp science fiction but
in theory the applications for erasing memory are as limitless as the
human creativity. Imagine if such a drug was readily at hand to give
to those of us with emotional memories like jealousy, rancor or
anxiety. Maybe those of us harboring one or more out of a clinical
laundry list of phobias could free ourselves from the memory of fear.
Where should we begin? The military complex has a vast amount of
cutting edge scientific discovery which flows out of government
subsidized research into military applications. Once the military has
tinkered around with the new technology it then releases the
technology to the commercial and private sectors. The military could
be spending time and resources to deal with a widespread and
neglected aspect of its “peace keeping” efforts: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. All of us should encourage the federal government to
invest in research which would aid our veterans of war in erasing the
memories tied to their PTSD. The first stage in forgetting is
remembering to help those who can't remember how to forget.
