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"Researchers led by New York University neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux recently claimed to be the first scientists to erase a single memory. Working with rats, LeDoux's team first taught the animals to fear both a beep and a siren by giving them an electric shock every time either of the tones sounded. Then LeDoux gave half the rats the drug U0126, which is known to interfere with memory storage, and replayed the beep without electric shocks. A day later, when LeDoux played back both tones to the rats, the animals that hadn't been given the drug were still fearful of both sounds. But the rats that had been given the memory-blocking drug weren't afraid of the beep, which they had last heard while under the influence of U0126. advertisement | article continues below Click here! Exactly how U0126 exerts its amnesiac effect is unknown, but it may block the synthesis of proteins that help strengthen connections between neurons and establish memories. The opportunity for erasure occurs during the act of retrieving a memory because that's when the memory is being updated and stabilized again for long-term storage. "Only those memories that are activated are vulnerable," LeDoux says. Drugs like U0126 may someday help sufferers of traumatic memories. A small group of human studies have been done on a drug called propranolol, which blocks the action of stress neurotransmitters that help cement memories in the brain, but LeDoux's work shows the potential for greater precision. "You might be able to reduce the traumatic impact of memories in people with PTSD," says LeDoux. "The good news is you wouldn't be erasing their memory bank." "

"You'll probably remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you first learned that passenger jets had crashed into the World Trade Center. People tend to form exceptionally vivid memories of highly consequential news, and it doesn't get much bigger than 9/11. Recollections of that day have given researchers a unique window into how the brain forms memories of shocking events. "It's as if a flashbulb goes off and you take a mental picture of your surroundings," says psychologist William Hirst of the New York School for Social Research. Flashbulb memories, as they are known, are tricky to study as people are seldom keen to talk to researchers just after hearing or seeing emotionally charged news. It can also be difficult to know how accurate a person's memory of the event is, since there is usually no way to be sure what actually happened. Elizabeth Phelps of New York University was in Manhattan on 9/11 and saw the attack. When fellow neuroscientist John Gabrieli called to check on her they "decided to put together a consortium of memory researchers, and started collecting data within a week"."

"Jeffrey Mitchell, a volunteer firefighter in the suburbs of Baltimore, came across the accident by chance: A car had smashed into a pickup truck loaded with metal pipes. Mitchell tried to help, but he saw at once that he was too late. The car had rear-ended the truck at high speed, sending a pipe through the windshield and into the chest of the passenger-a young bride returning home from her wedding. There was blood everywhere, staining her white dress crimson. Mitchell couldn't get the dead woman out of his mind; the tableau was stuck before his eyes. He tried to tough it out, but after months of suffering, he couldn't take it anymore. He finally told his brother, a fellow firefighter, about it. Miraculously, that worked. No more trauma; Mitchell felt free. This dramatic recovery, along with the experiences of fellow first responders, led Mitchell to do some research into recovery from trauma. He eventually concluded that he had stumbled upon a powerful treatment. In 1983, nearly a decade after the car accident, Mitchell wrote an influential paper in the Journal of Emergency Medical Services that transformed his experience into a seven-step practice, which he called critical incident stress debriefing, or CISD. The central idea: People who survive a painful event should express their feelings soon after so the memory isn't "sealed over" and repressed, which could lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. In recent years, CISD has become exceedingly popular, used by the US Department of Defense, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Israeli army, the United Nations, and the American Red Cross. Each year, more than 30,000 people are trained in the technique. (After the September 11 attacks, 2,000 facilitators descended on New York City.) Even though PTSD is triggered by a stressful incident, it is really a disease of memory. The problem isn't the trauma-it's that the trauma can't be forgotten. Most memories, and their associated emotion