Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory

April 6, 2009 | Source: New York Times

SUNY Downstate Medical Center neuroscientists have discovered that a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory (like emotional associations or spatial knowledge) blocks the activity of a substance, PKMzeta, that the brain apparently needs to retain much of its learned information.

The possibility of memory editing has enormous possibilities, but raises huge ethical issues.