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General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Nicholas Lee on 02/08/2016 07:41:26

Title: Is there a safer alternative to electroconvulsive therapy for erasing memory?
Post by: Nicholas Lee on 02/08/2016 07:41:26
-y. This idea is to help people with PTSD. So electroconvulsive therapy never has to be used again.

1. The yet to be built INUMAC MRI machine (for imaging Neuro disease Using high-field MR, And Contrastophores) can image a area of about 0.1mm, or 1000 neurons, and see changes occuring as fast as one-tenth of a second.
It would allow much more precise functional imaging of the brain at work, than is currently available.
You cannot really discriminate what is happening in the brain at the level of a few hundred neurons.
Combine the INUMAC with the latest CT scanners.
With the latest CT scanners, the final picture is far more detailed than an X-ray image.
Inside the CT scanner is a X-ray detector which can see hundreds of different levels of density.
Combine the INUMAC, and latest CT scanners with Magnetoencephalography (MEG), and Electroencephalogram (EEG) to see the electro signals, happening in real time.
In Magnetoencephalography, the SERF (spin exchange relaxation free) magnetometer in being investigated for future machines.
This will help increase the accuracy of the electro signal in the brain.
Now you have both BOLD, and electro and chemical signals to deduce what neurons hold which specific spatial memory.
2. Modify a Gamma Knife machine, currently the ball lenses need to be worked on to ionize micron sized groups of neurons, in cubic areas in the brain.
Remember a gamma wave can pass through something as small as an atom.
In gamma knife surgery they ionize tumors in the brain the size of a pea, so ionizing a cubic area in the brain of around 20 microns would be way safer than gamma knife surgery.
3. A neuroscientist may say " you need to find very  group of neurons associated with a specific memory, and then you would need to ionize every group of neurons associated with that memory to erase that specific memory."
You do not need to find EVERY group of neurons in the brain that holds a specific memory.
Ionizing SOME of the groups of neurons is enough to disrupt a specific memory.
And here is how you do it.
You look for the groups of neurons that hold the bad memory on the INUMAC MRI, and FMRI, CT EEG, and MEG technology.
You find the bad memories, by asking the person to recollect the bad memory.
When you have identified which groups of neurons could hold the bad memories.
You ask the person to recollect the bad memory, as you ionize the neurons associated with the bad memory, you keep asking the person to recollect the bad memory, the more you ionize, the more hazy the bad memory becomes to the person, as you ask him to recollect it.
So gradually the bad memory should be erased, but the point is you did not need to find, and ionize EVERY group of neurons in the brain to erase the bad memory.
Which would be like finding a needle in a forest.
This is a lot more safer than electroconvulsive therapy it can cause confusion, and memory loss, of either good memories, or memories of important this you should know. and this technique with INUMAC,and FMRI, and a modified gamma knife is more specific, at erasing the bad memories, and leaving the good memories, and memories of things you need to know.
ZIP (Zeta Inhibitory Peptide), and Optogenetics is never going to work in a human.
In Gamma Knife surgery they ionize a area in the brain the size of a pea, I want to ionize a cubic area a few microns in size, so this would be way less dangerous than gamma knife surgery.
Also gamma waves may not need to be used, X-rays could be used to ionize the groups of neurons, which would be more safer.
Safety is the most important priority in this idea.
This idea to erase specific memories, is a option that is a safer, more specific technique better than electroconvulsive therapy.
I am grateful for your help, anything helps even a few words.





Title: Re: Is there a safer alternative to electroconvulsive therapy for erasing memory?
Post by: smart on 16/11/2017 15:35:46
Dear @Nicholas Lee

you cannot "erase" a specific memory without causing harm to nearby neurons. Thoses "bad memories" as you call them are there for a reason; It's much safer to introspect into the root cause(s) of theses traumatic events with psychotherapy to allow self-healing to occur. 

tk
Title: Re: Is there a safer alternative to electroconvulsive therapy for erasing memory?
Post by: SeanB on 16/11/2017 17:10:03
As far as I know memory is not stored as a particular location, or a specific neuron set, but more like a hologram, with the memory being more created by the linkages formed between neurons, and then being kept by being refreshed  and with new memories creating additional pathways.

Thus I see that your method, while being able to erase particular memories, will also have a very unwanted side effect of also erasing or modifying the rest of the memories stored in this region, and thus will prove less than ideal in action. The action of thinking of a bad memory can also have some side effects, as association will also cause additional recollections which might be desired, and the erasure will more than likely destroy or modify them as well.
Title: Re: Is there a safer alternative to electroconvulsive therapy for erasing memory?
Post by: Herman on 20/11/2017 16:55:36
Thanks I appreciate your Work, too Good keep going.!!!!