Oh. so many uses when this gets expanded with easy and sophisticated delivery methods (and you know it will) to be able to target and expunge any single memory. Commit a crime, then remove the memory of doing it and even wanting to do it. What does punishment mean when as far as you remember, you really are innocent. Politicians say something, then get that public’s memory removed when they do the opposite. The ultimate rape drug, adultery drug, domestic violence drug. And then the military ops uses are endless. Yes, so many uses when others can alter your mind, your very being, at will. Now, to work on being able to implant a memory…

Wipe out a single memory – Drug can clear away one fearful memory while leaving another intact.

A single, specific memory has been wiped from the brains of rats, leaving other recollections intact.

The study adds to our understanding of how memories are made and altered in the brain, and could help to relieve sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of the fearful memories that disrupt their lives. The results are published in Nature Neuroscience1.

The brain secures memories by transferring them from short-term to long-term storage, through a process called reconsolidation. It has been shown before that this process can be interrupted with drugs. But Joseph LeDoux of the Center for Neural Science at New York University and his colleagues wanted to know how specific this interference was: could the transfer of one specific memory be meddled with without affecting others?

“This is the future of psychiatry – neuroscience will provide tools to help it become more effective.”