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12/18/09
Erasing Fear Memories: “Fear Training”
What do sexual assaults, plane crashes, torture, and natural disasters have in
common? Besides the fact that they are all devastating for those affected by it, they can
also all cause trauma, an emotional wound or shock. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or
PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that often affects those who have been through such a
traumatic event. You need to specifically define PTSD. Research shows that PTSD is most
severe and long lasting when the traumatic event is a deliberate man-made disaster
like…, and that veterans who experience war-related traumatic events usually exhibit
significantly more PTSD symptoms than average patients do.-punctuation goes after the
citation only. What exactly is an average patient? (August & Gianola, 1987). Some
patients with this disorder constantly have to relive their trauma through flashbacks or
nightmares. Others become emotionally detached, willfully avoiding objects or events
that are reminders of their experience, or suffering from extreme guilt, depression, and
worry. Such relapses of these “fear memories” of traumatic events posed –posed (past
tense?)major clinical problems, as up until recently they were thought to be impossible
to eliminate (Pizzorusso, 2009; Hupbach et al., 2009). New neurobiological findings,
however, have discovered a way to eliminate sporadic reoccurrences of fear memories
in rats, which gives scientists much hope about treating disorders like PTSD in the
future. – This suggests that you will focus on these findings? We will see…
One of the biggest obstacles in the treatment of PTSD and other related
syndromes was that once fear memories were consolidated in the brain, they became
permanently erasure-resistant (Pizzorusso, 2009). That meant that these fearful
memories were nearly impossible to get rid of, protected in the brain by netlike proteins
called chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (Gogolla et al., 2009). Thus, an important new
step in the neurobiological field was the discovery that although these memories were
impossible to be erased, they were not necessarily unchangeable. It was discovered that
before the fear memories were consolidated, or became permanent, there was a time
period where they were initially fragile and subject to change. Every subsequent time
that this painful memory is “retrieved”, or revisited, the protein that is responsible for
keeping the memory stable is degraded, or broken down (Lee et al., 2008). Thus, this
memory returns to its flexible state, and it can be modified for a window of time until
the protein is reconsolidated in the brain and placed in long term storage (Hupbach et
al., 2009). This all sounds very fictitious and oversimplified. I really do not follow the
logic. Some scientists say that this serves to incorporate new information about a
specific fear in order to update an original memory (Lee et al., 2008).-what does this
mean? This new finding has neurobiologists excited about its many possible applications
in the treating of anxiety disorders like PTSD. I am confused. The intro ends with the
mouse experiment, but then you jump into something completely different. You are
confusing the reader. You need to guide the mind of the person reading this. This
paragraph seems to be about the inability to erase a fear memory and how this is not
exactly true. You need to transition into this paragraph from the intro.
One experiment tested whether this process could be effective without the use
of drugs. Specifically, this experiment (Monfils et al., 2009) wanted to see if the rats’ –
the rats? (try the memory of rats) memories could be trained to tone down the fear that
was associated with a footshock. To do this, first, the rats were zapped three times with
a shock to their feet while simultaneously hearing a specific tone. Then, the rats were
made sure to have associated the tone with the shock; every subsequent time they
heard the tone (even without receiving the shock), their bodies froze as a result of fear.
Afterwards, the tone was played for the rats again, “retrieving” the original memoryand also rendering that memory unstable. Immediately afterwards, during the window
of instability, the tone was constantly played for the rats without the shocks until
habituation in effect occurred. What this means is that the tone was played so many
times without any danger taking place that there was a decrease in the fear response, or
in this case, the freezing, to the tone. Then, when the memory’s period of instability
ended and the memory was reconsolidated, the new information that the tone was
harmless was also solidified into the brain along with the original memory. The rats’ lack
of reaction to the tone was held 24 hours, a week, and even a year after the training,
even when the shock was given again unexpectedly. This experiment shows that even
without the use of drugs, a kind of clinical therapy can be done to rats during the time
period of instability of a recalled memory to reduce their reaction to an associated fear,
in this case, to the tone. – This is interesting, but how does it relate to humans? Give an
example of how this could be used.
In another experiment, a trio of Dutch researchers extended this concept to
humans.-you read my mind…excellent (this really is not an extension after reading it) In
this experiment (Kindt et al., 2009), human subjects were shown pictures of spiders,
with each image accompanied by an electric shock. Then, the following days, the
scientist redisplayed the images to the subjects, either with or without orally preadministering propranolol, an anti-adrenaline drug. The intended effect of the
propranolol was to interfere with the action of stress hormones on the body and brain,
causing the fear reaction. In this case, the subjects' fearful emotions were diminished,
while their memory of events remained intact. It was found that those who had taken
propranolol prior to viewing the image had a far weaker startle response when exposed
to the images than those who had not. (Startle responses were due to expecting a shock
after viewing the spider images). The experimenters concluded that the drug interfered
with the reconsolidation of the emotional part of the memory. Thus, although they
clearly remembered that they received shocks while viewing the spider images, they
ceased to feel fear even when exposed to that stimulus. This result is very promising, as
it brings forth a possible means to remove trepidations associated with a memory
without interfering with its recollection. – You implied when you started the paragraph
that the pervious one about the rats was somehow related to this one. However, this
experiment is completely different. It has nothing to do with desensitization of the
stimulus. You need to address this. How do these two experiments relate to each other?
Although such findings do not guarantee a flawless therapeutic method for
treating disorders like PTSD, recent discoveries and findings have given hope to both
researchers and therapists alike. These experimental successes have encouraged
researchers to further test if such treatments, such as the application of propranolol
after memory retrieval, are effective ways to treat these emotional disorders in the
clinic, and to prevent the relapse of fear. Hopefully, these experiments will one day lead
to a trenchant way to treat those suffering from PTSD. – From what I understand, you
describe two experiments and the experiments do not really relate to each other. You
need to choose a specific focus and dive into it. You do not have enough information at
this point. Just an experiment. Are there other experiments? I don’t even understand
how using proprianolol is useful. You need to get into the details if you want to focus on
this. Tell a well developed story. Does this relate to the protein degradation story? I
understand that these all pertain to fear memories, but they are very different aspects
of a larger topic. Focus on one aspect and tell a complete tale.
The number below will change with each revision. These numbers are simply indicative of the
amount of improvement required at this point. When you receive a 9 or greater, the review is
ready. DrT
6/10
References
August, L. R., & Gianola, B. A. (1987). Symptoms of War Trauma Induced Psychiatric
Disorders: Southeast Asian Refugees and Vietnam Veterans. IMR, 21(3) , 10171020.
Gogolla, N., Caroni, P., Luthi, A., & Herry, C. (2009). Perineuronal Nets Protect Fear
Memories from Erasure. Science, 325, 1258-1261.
Hupbach, A., Gomez, R., & Nadel, L. (2009). Episodic Memory Reconsolidation: Updating
or Source Confusion. Memory, 17 (5), 502-510.
Kindt, M., Soeter, M., & Vervliet, B. (2009). Beyond Extinction: Erasing Human Fear
Responses and Preventing the Return of Fear. Nature Neuroscience, 12, 256-258
Lee, S. H. et al. (2008). Synaptic Protein Degradation Underlies Destabilization of
Retrieved Fear Memory. Science, 319, 1253-1256.
Monfils, M. H., Cowansage, K. K., Klann, E. & LeDoux, J. E. (2009). Extinction
Reconsolidation Boundaries: Key to Persistent Attenuation of Fear Memories.
Science, 324, 951-955.
Pizzorusso, T. (2009). Erasing Fear Memories. Science, 325, 1214-1215.