Today’s NYT’s article on the memory research at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn is the stuff of sci-fi-esque movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Looks like they can block some unpleasant memories in mice – like the memory of a particularly disgusting taste (wonder how they simulated that…) – some three months after it occured. The concepts hold promise for better understanding how memories are formed and, hopefully, unformed, as in dementia. They remind us of the ethical issues at play in blocking memories. But anyone suffering from PTSD will probably cheer at the possibility.
The odd thing about the article is that it is framed as a contest between artists and writers and scientists to find the meaning in human identity through memory. At the start, the writer says that the artists and writers have been talking about this for centuries. At the end, it seems, the scientists are poised to surge ahead. It’s great to have the work of artists and writers identified – but really unneccessary to pit the two against each other…we continue to work hand in hand. Or rather molecule in molecule.
