Whether you were a fan or not, 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was something of a mind-blower (pun intended). A logline description of the Jim Carrey indy pic might read: A couple, both devastated by their failed relationship, have memories of each other wiped from their brains.
For all of its problems, the film was certainly thought provoking. And it turns out that reality is once again close to mirroring art.
According to a UCLA study recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience, scientists have pinpointed a neurological protein called PKM as a key to long-term memory retention. OK, don’t roll your eyes and drift off: I’m not going to hit you with a dissertation on proteins, synapses and brain makeup. Bottom line is since they can now identify the stuff that keeps memories hanging on, all they have to do is get in the way of it doing its job in a given memory circuit and Bammo!—the painful memory begins to fade. And scientists have been doing just that with marine snails, a critter whose cells react in similar ways to humans.
Now, don’t ask me how they know what a snail is thinking or feeling. That’s probably another wing of science that could serve up sure-fire bedtime stories for the insomniacs among us. But the memory-wiping side of things is worth a word or two.
First of all, I can certainly see the potential benefits. The study mentions the possible help to post-traumatic stress victims. I mean, who wouldn’t cheer the idea of easing the fears of, say, some kid who’s been exposed to something terrible? The study’s lead author, Professor David Glanzman, also theorized that if disrupting PKM activity can help erase memories, then perhaps boosting the protein’s activity could help Alzheimer’s patients. Again, all good.
My only worry is, well, abuse. Like everything else that started out as a positive, from pain meds to plastic surgery, I can see memory blitzing becoming a problem, too. Hey, just like the Eternal Sunshine take, who’s to judge what’s really traumatic and what’s just a painful part of life? And isn’t that pain something that we usually learn from? I mean, we can all be prone to make poor relationship choices, foolish financial decisions, or stupid calls behind the wheel of a car. Don’t those moments often teach us valuable lessons? So what happens to the positives that are connected to a devastating negative we can no longer remember?
OK. Sorry. I didn’t mean to get you thinking about that time. You know the one. So … just forget I said anything.
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