London, Nov. 3: A new technique promises to delete painful memories permanently, opening the way for more effective treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.
A team at Johns Hopkins University in the US conducted tests on mice and removed a protein from the region of the brain responsible for recalling fear.
The mice were then unable to recall the fear they experienced when a loud sound was played prior to the experiment, according to the journal Science Express.
The method is similar to that imagined in the film Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, where Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet decide to erase each other from their memories after a difficult break-up, reports the Daily Mail.
The research described the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in that process.