Fear memory usually affects a person's life, so how should we eliminate fear memory? How to eliminate fear memory is what I brought to you, I hope it will help you.
The process of memory formation includes several hours or even longer consolidation.
Before the solidification is completed, memory is in a very fragile stage, and many factors, such as our own behavior, drugs, epilepsy, brain trauma, etc., can easily affect the uncured memory. As a result, the content of memory may become distorted, incorrect or even forgotten. But traditionally, once the memory is solidified, it will not be affected and can be firmly stored in our brains. However, this view is refuted by new evidence in recent 15 to 20 years: even solidified memories can be easily changed. Whether it's memory strength or memory content.
In the past, researchers thought that once the memory was solidified, every time we extracted the memory, it was a fixed version of the memory.
But new evidence shows that every time we extract a memory, we will go through a process of "re-consolidation". In this process of "re-solidification", memory will become fragile again, and many factors may change the content of memory, enhance or reduce the memory intensity. The next time we recall this memory, we will choose the memory version after "re-curing" today, not the first solidified version.
At present, there is no consistent conclusion about the detailed mechanism of memory "resolidification" or why there is such a mechanism. However, the "re-solidification" of memory may provide a new treatment for anxiety or post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).
20 10 Daniela, a neuroscientist at new york university? Daniela Schiller and others have successfully demonstrated that memory "resolidification" can eliminate the restricted fearful memory of human beings by using Pavlov's classical constraints. On the first day of the experiment, participants first went through the stage of restricted acquisition. Small squares will appear one after another on the computer screen in front of the participants. The squares have two colors, such as blue or green. When the blue square appears, there is a 38% chance that participants will get a slight electric shock on their wrists, but when the green square appears, there will be no electric shock. After repeated many times, participants associated the blue square with the uncomfortable and terrible experience of electric shock. The next day, the participants returned to the laboratory for the extinction procedure. The so-called fading process is actually not to give people an electric shock when the blue square appears. After repeated many times, participants should temporarily stop their fear reaction to the blue box. But the special feature of this experiment is that some time before the fading process began, the researchers deliberately aroused the participants' fear memory of the blue square. It's simple. Let the participants look at the blue box again. It's just that the timing of this memory is different in different groups. Among them, the first group was ten minutes before the fading process began, the second group was six hours ago, and the third group did not particularly evoke this memory.
According to previous animal research results, it is generally believed that "resolidification" will end within six hours after the memory is awakened.
In other words, ten minutes after the fear memory is awakened, the fear memory should be in the "resolidification" stage, but six hours after the fear memory is awakened, the "resolidification" has ended. That is to say, the first group of subjects was in the stage of "resolidification" during the desalination process, while the second group of subjects had already completed "resolidification" at that time. As for the third group, the memory was not aroused, so it was not "re-solidified". Although after the fading process, the three groups of people no longer have a fear reaction to the blue square for the time being, when they returned to the laboratory on the third day, the fear memories of the participants in the second and third groups came back! Only the first group of participants, they are really not afraid of blue diamonds anymore! To put it simply, the researcher goes through the fading process in the "resolidification" stage of memory, which makes the fear memory unable to "resolidify" normally and makes the formed fear memory disappear.
Many experiments have obtained the same results as the above experiments. In addition, brain imaging research also shows that by interfering with the "resolidification" process of fear memory, people's brains really no longer respond to blue squares. When we recall the memory of fear, the amygdala in the brain is strongly activated. However, when their memories were "solidified", participants who accepted the fading process did not react so strongly when they saw the blue squares. Moreover, this effect will still exist at least after 18 months! It implies that the memory erased by the interference of "resolidification" may disappear forever!
Of course, you may suspect that most of these experiments focus on the fear memory obtained through classical constraints, but is there any way to eliminate the source of fear memory or anxiety caused by various reasons in real life?
Swedish researchers successfully copied the experimental results to patients with "arachnophobia" in the latest research. In a similar way to the above experiment, the researchers first aroused these participants' fear memory of spiders, and then interfered with the "re-solidification" process of this memory. These participants who have been afraid of spiders all their lives have become less afraid of spiders!
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