While we all have memories, some of those memories, especially ones that are particularly traumatic, are hidden from us by our own brains. In a way, this protective mechanism of being unable to recall stressful memories prevents us from experiencing the emotional pain associated with the memory. But what if we need to face them? How can we get these memories back?
A new study published in Nature Neuroscience has explained the process of state-dependent learning and how it affects our memories — or lack thereof — thanks to our brain’s protective instincts.
Memories Formed In Particular States Can Only Be Accessed In A Similar State
Our brains may hide our emotionally painful memories, but the repression of these memories can manifest themselves as mood disorders, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
What happens when we have a traumatic experience is that our brains are still recording, but they are within a specific type of recording category known as state-dependent learning. The study researchers have found that those memories that are formed within a specific state of mind (be it fear-induced or drug-induced) are best retrieved when the brain has returned to that similar state.
Key author of the study Jelena Radulovic of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine explains that this important finding may lead to better treatments for patients suffering psychiatric disorders who need to face their traumatic memories in order to recover.
So how are memories formed? If you can’t remember, read this!
Meet The Neurotransmitters that aid your Memories
There are two main amino acids in your brain that are the neurotransmitters that control your nerves. Meet glutamate and GABA receptors!
Glutamate stimulates your nerves, while GABA calms them. They act as opposing forces to help balance your brain function: one excites your nerves when the time is right, the other inhibits them when you need to chill. But in certain overstimulating situations, our glutamate spikes, which wouldn’t be a terrible problem except it’s also the main chemical needed to store memories for easy retrieval.
Now, GABA is interesting because there are two kinds of GABA receptors. The first is the balancing receptor to glutamate, while the other has a different role. These extra-synaptic GABA, as they are known, primarily focus on adjusting mental states and brain waves in response to internal body chemicals.
Do you remember when we said sleep is the key?
Extra-synaptic GABA are at play when we are tired or are waking up or are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But they are also hard at work when a fear-inducing state is occurring and we are using out glutamate to respond to the event. During this fear state, our extra-synaptic GABA store our memories deep within our subconscious.
The researchers in the study likened this to tuning the radio from AM to FM frequency, where we regularly access FM, but the station we need is on AM. We can’t get to the channel we need if we stay on the FM frequency, so we must switch to AM.
Likewise, if our GABA receptors store the traumatic memory, in order to get it back, we must activate them again.
But can we restore memories with light? This article says “perhaps”…
The Study That Used Inebriated States To Restore Memories
The study researchers came across their findings after taking lab mice and getting them inebriated. No, not with alcohol, but with a drug called gaboxadol, which stimulates the extra-synaptic GABA receptors in their brains.
While inebriated, the researchers moved the mice to a box, gave a short electric shock, and repeated the assignment the next day but without injecting the mice. Strangely, the mice showed no fear of the box. However, when they gave another shot of gaboxadol to the rodents and placed them in the cage, they stood anxiously awaiting another shock. They had remembered.
Under the same drug-induced brain state, the mices’ memories of the traumatic event came flooding back because the extra-synaptic GABA receptors were activated. They had tuned into the AM frequency and the channel was playing loud and clear.
What does this mean for humans? Well, it may mean that a different system for regulating, storing, and accessing memories has been found that can prove useful in therapies for mood disorders. Our memories are all there, we just have to learn on which channel they are playing to hear them.
Title Picture Credit to 55Laney69
Additional Image Credits to Sara and |vv@ldzen|
From the beginning of Moleskine, they’ve been recording our memories like no other…
