14 DAY TRIAL // A group of scientists from the Radboud University Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, say that they were recently able to develop a new technique for preventing patients from recollecting negative memories. The approach uses mild electroconvulsive therapy to disrupt neural patterns that recall specific memories.
Electricity has been used for this type of neural control for many years, but bad representations in movies and indiscriminate use by psychiatrists have given it a bad reputation. Over the past few years, many research teams have started studying the real effects of deep brain stimulation or mild electroshock therapy on improving the workings of the human brain.
In a paper published in the December 22 issue of the top scientific journal Nature Neuroscience, the research group explains how electrical impulses can be used as a form of targeted medical intervention, to be used for patients who suffer from treatment-resistant depression.
Modern forms of electroconvulsive (ECT) or electroshock therapy are able to deliver electrical impulses to the brain via electrodes attached to the scalp, and does not require electrodes to be implanted inside the brain. The latter would enable experts to use lower-intensity currents overall.
ECT is still commonly-used today, in combination with anesthesia and muscle relaxants, to help deal with severe, medication-resistant, relapsing depression. When all other forms of therapy fail, this is the only approach that can still have some effect, Nature reports.
“This is one time I would say that science is better than art. It's a very clever study,” comments neuroscientist Karim Nader, from the McGill University, in Montreal, Canada. He was not involved with the new research.
RUN experts, led by neuroscientists Marijn Kroes, say that their approach is simple – time ECT bursts strategically, so that patients' memories of disturbing episodes cannot form and come back to haunt them. The theory underlining this approach is called memory reconsolidation.
Reconsolidation occurs when the memory is taken out of storage, and brought into consciousness. Some researchers believe that memories – both good or bad – are vulnerable during this stage, and can be altered or even erased altogether.
“This provides very strong and compelling evidence that memories in the human brain undergo reconsolidation, and that a window of opportunity exists to treat bad memories,” comments neuroscientist Daniela Schiller, from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She was not a member of the study team.