Yeah, I knew that -
Apr. 7th, 2009 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgBut here it is, wrapped in another nice package.
Cognitive work, targeted to change brain chemistry - look Ma, no drugs!
This time, it's reported as a treatment for PTSD -
The new procedure relies on a quirky property of memories called reconsolidation. The process of jogging a memory – with an emotional or sensory jolt, for instance – seems to make it malleable for a few hours.
...
In search of a gentler way to block fearful memories, Marie Monfils, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas in Austin, tweaked a therapy sometimes used to treat PTSD, called extinction.
Here, doctors repeatedly deliver threatening cues – gun shots, for instance – in safe environments in hopes of drowning out the fearful associations.
Think of riding a glass elevator a bazillion times to get over a fear of heights, with your best friends, completely safe (maybe even with your favorite tunes). In this case, you associate something else (something as simple as a blue square) with the thing that scares you witless, and the bad association fades as the memory reconsolidates. It's a small window, too - and varies from person to person. Do it outside of that window, and blammo - what your first impression was when you heard this? Yeah - congrats, you just associated that bad stuff with your good stuff and TRIGGER is now your middle name.
Also, this is a rat study - with some very, VERY limited human study tossed in afterward.
But - pretty nifty, neh?
Cognitive work, targeted to change brain chemistry - look Ma, no drugs!
This time, it's reported as a treatment for PTSD -
The new procedure relies on a quirky property of memories called reconsolidation. The process of jogging a memory – with an emotional or sensory jolt, for instance – seems to make it malleable for a few hours.
...
In search of a gentler way to block fearful memories, Marie Monfils, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas in Austin, tweaked a therapy sometimes used to treat PTSD, called extinction.
Here, doctors repeatedly deliver threatening cues – gun shots, for instance – in safe environments in hopes of drowning out the fearful associations.
Think of riding a glass elevator a bazillion times to get over a fear of heights, with your best friends, completely safe (maybe even with your favorite tunes). In this case, you associate something else (something as simple as a blue square) with the thing that scares you witless, and the bad association fades as the memory reconsolidates. It's a small window, too - and varies from person to person. Do it outside of that window, and blammo - what your first impression was when you heard this? Yeah - congrats, you just associated that bad stuff with your good stuff and TRIGGER is now your middle name.
Also, this is a rat study - with some very, VERY limited human study tossed in afterward.
But - pretty nifty, neh?
