电休克疗法帮患者忘却痛苦记忆_BEC初级作文

电休克疗法帮患者忘却痛苦记忆

科学家们曾经认为，一段记忆一旦印在脑子里就会永久保存下去而无法更改。过去，治疗焦虑症患者的办法是让他们创造新的记忆以克服恐惧。然而旧的记忆保存不动，并可能随时被重新激发出来。

About a decade ago, scientists made a surprising discovery. They showed that when a lab rodent was given a reminder of some past fear, the memory of that event appeared to briefly become unstable. If nothing was done, that memory stabilized for a second time, and thus got ingrained-a process known as reconsolidation.

大约在10年前，科学家有了一个意外的发现。当提醒实验室中的啮齿类动物回忆过去的恐惧场景时，脑中的那段回忆会暂时呈现出不稳定状态。如果不采取措施，那段记忆会再一次稳定下来，并深植于脑中，这一过程被称作“再巩固”(reconsolidation)。

But when certain drugs, known to interfere with the reconsolidation process, were injected directly into the rodent's brain, they wiped out the animal's fearful memory altogether. Crucially, other memories weren't erased.

但如果将某些可以干扰“再巩固”过程的药物直接注射进啮齿动物的脑中，动物的恐惧记忆会被彻底抹除。而且关键在于，其他记忆并没有被抹去。

Whether it was possible to disrupt the memory-consolidation process in humans was thought to be difficult to answer because injecting drugs into the human brain is risky business. Dr. Kroes and his colleagues found a way around the problem.