What is the most powerful thing in the life of the person? Of course it is our memory. It is very hard to imagine society where no one can remember anything. None of the present achievements could be obtained and even daily communication would be different as we wouldn't be able to talk. Today I saw an article that scientists identified a mechanism which is essential for creating our memories. But scientists were happier about finding out that the same mechanism is essential for forgetting as well. This is not everything as forgetting was proved to be active and not passive process as it was thought before. To get these results fruit flies were studied. They were learned to associate smells with negative or positive reinforcement. This showed that small amount of dopamine is responsible for making memories and forgetting the information, but scientists were interested how the same molecule can cause two opposite consequences. The conclusion of the experiment was that dopamine starts to stimulate learning receptor first, but when it is overstimulated, it continues to activate the receptor of forgetfulness. Could this give us a solution how to increase our memory? Yes it does, as mutation of forgetfulness receptor, proved to block forgetting of information. This is a great discovery towards more knowledge about our own body. It can also be instantly used in medicine to cure people who can't forget car crash or any other horrible event. Here we can also start a discussion about people who could use it for bad purposes. They could easily make witnesses to forget important faces or other important information. So how could we protect ourselves? Teach this method only to few people in the world? Leave your opinion below.
More details about experiment: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509180113.htm
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