Before modern psychiatry has long been a serious problem: how to teach people to forget negative memories? How to get rid of the burden of the past, from fears and anxieties that have taken place and imprinted in the memory of the people who now prevent them from living? It is proved that with some effort people can “erase” some of my memories, but exactly how this mechanism works?
If past work has been associated with brain regions responsible for long-term memory, in the new study, researchers from the University of Texas (USA) focused on ventral temporal cortex. It is responsible for processing sensory and perceptual information, including memories of the images. It was recorded higher brain activity during experiments, when participants were offered a deliberately forget something.
Scientists have found two things. First, “forget”, to destroy memories at the conscious reason, it is possible. Secondly, it is extremely difficult to do because of the inability of man to control the level of brain activity. If the “overwork” that a strong impact will only strengthen the memory, and if too relaxed, it is possible to miss the target memory, while it is not going anywhere and remind myself. Need a moderate, focused level of brain activity, akin to meditation, and only then success is possible.
It turned out that when “forgetting” the brain erases no memory as such, but of sensory perceptions, your reactions to the event, which took place in the past. The overall scene and situation to forget was easier than, for example, the actions of people. This is due to the fact that personal contact is added to a strong and multifaceted emotional component, but because such a vast reservoir of feelings and memories is much more difficult to remove.
Source — The University of Texas at Austin