Are there surgical or electronic interventions to the brain to erase memories?

[sandhya]

I would be willing to be a test subject for memory erasure ? Anyone?

 

[gorgonzola]

Your main problem here is twofold: firstly, memories tend to be well-distributed across the brain and entwined with other memories, precluding a physical solution.

Secondly, I'm assuming you're interested in the erasure of traumatic memories, but those that you'll get in flashbacks are stored differently to regular ones and so any technique that might work for the latter may well not work for the former (for the latter I occasionally employ one or two techniques on the level of un-spoiling spoiled Christmas present surprises).

Psychologically, you can (well, probably not voluntarily) wall traumatic memories off with dissociative amnesia and/or in a part, which can be pretty effective in the short term but that sets up future trouble.

Is it more flashbacks or a form of intrusive thought? I have my brain set up to mulch the memory of a specific intrusion because I am really quite avoidant of it and on the occasions when that process takes longer than the usual time it goes from incredibly scary to unbelievably scary.

 

[sandhya]

Your main problem here is twofold: firstly, memories tend to be well-distributed across the brain and entwined with other memories, precluding a physical solution.

Secondly, I'm assuming you're interested in the erasure of traumatic memories, but those that you'll get in flashbacks are stored differently to regular ones and so any technique that might work for the latter may well not work for the former (for the latter I occasionally employ one or two techniques on the level of un-spoiling spoiled Christmas present surprises).

Psychologically, you can (well, probably not voluntarily) wall traumatic memories off with dissociative amnesia and/or in a part, which can be pretty effective in the short term but that sets up future trouble.

Is it more flashbacks or a form of intrusive thought? I have my brain set up to mulch the memory of a specific intrusion because I am really quite avoidant of it and on the occasions when that process takes longer than the usual time it goes from incredibly scary to unbelievably scary.

Im post op and my pain and a visual cue made me remember a physically traumatic event from earlier this year. So it was a physical pain and visual cue that triggered it

 

[Friday]

There have been a LOT of both med & surgical trials for exactly that.

Every single one of them? (With living test subjects; sometimes the memory loss is so severe patients forget how to breathe). Has had the same results past the mouse stage; vegetable or violent delusional psychopath. OCCASIONALLY both results at the same time. Essentially locking a person into a near vegetable stage, whilst simultaneously triggering constant rage/fear/violence. Those??? Are some super quirky scams to read. Intellectually fascinating, but if I actually knew the person? I’d sever their carotid. And consider it a mitzvah.

There ARE treatments that have the side effect of memory erasure… but the tend to leave traumatic memories alone, and erase other formative bits of personality, so the goal is usually to MINIMIZE memory loss, whilst still achieving the desired effects. It’s not great at doing that. Low to middling decent at stopping intractable depression.

Imagine your worst, absolute worse, most painful moments in life. Now? Imagine reliving them for the next 60 years. That’s your BEST hope, still getting to be you, with -not just current, a century of failures backing it, but- bleeding edge neuroscience. Being a vegetable is prolly better.

As opposed to PTSD, where you get the periodic spike of reliving hard/bad shit. A few days of recoil here, a few months there, as opposed to 24/7/365 for decades. A SPIKE? Is manageable. Every moment, for the entire rest of your life? Is not. That’s why the test subjects are locked up, screaming -or drooling- until they die.

 

[gorgonzola]

Every moment, for the entire rest of your life? Is not.

I do not recommend this.

The only solution insofar as I have managed for this kind of thing is to: (a) clone your own personality, except for access to certain memories; and (b) nope out permanently. The trouble with that is that it doesn't prevent intrusion by v1 and it's not what I would call surviving through it.

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

m post op and my pain and a visual cue made me remember a physically traumatic event from earlier this year. So it was a physical pain and visual cue that triggered it

I feel perhaps temporary (conscious) dissociation would be better in this situation than having your memories erased.

Temporary dissociation will serve you better, in the sense that the trauma happened for a reason (I am not saying that's objective reality, just my personal belief), and will need to resurface later when you feel able to handle it. Erasing your memories (even if it could be done) just obliterates any possible value or insights that you might get later on (down the line) from having had that experience.

I have "somewhat" succesfully trained myself to dissociate from certain traumatic memories when they are triggered. Then I can gauge whether or not I am ready to deal with that at a later moment.

So it was a physical pain and visual cue that triggered it

If the physical pain was part of the trigger, maybe there are ways to respond to the physical pain somatically, to prevent your brain from bringing up the memory.

 

[Calmdown]

Propranolol can help "erase" the emotions linked to a memory. When you take it first of all body reactions get muted, so your body is in a calm state. What many people don't seem to know is that it can also affect emotions, which is why "remembering" traumatic stuff when you take propranolol gives you the chance to process it properly. There are studies about it. However there is never a 100% guarantee that it works and secondly it is very important to talk to a doctor and check your health before taking it because it is a beta blocker. If your blood pressure is already low it could be risky. You also take a very low dosage first to see how you react.
It helped me for social anxiety but I have no experience with its effects on trauma processing myself. You don't have to take it regularly. It works after 40-60 minutes and the main effect lasts rather short like 2-3 hours. It can make you stay awake if you take it too late because it probably has an effect on melatonin. And never mix it with other meds or alcohol etc. unless your doctor said it is ok.
You don't automatically feel great taking it but it helps to get you into a state where processing is more managable.