Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mice

Targeted memory erasure may soon be more than just a plot device in romantic comedies like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” By manipulating a single protein called alpha-CaM kinase II, researchers have managed to eliminate traumatic memories from the brains of mice without impacting their ability to recall other memories. A remarkable discovery and one that heralds the possibility of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and debilitating phobias, not to mention questionable new procedures for the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Homeland Security. That said, the process is nowhere near ready for human trials. “First of all I should emphasize the methodology is not applicable to the human clinical situation yet,” said Dr. Joe Tsien of the Brain and Behavior Discovery Institute in Georgia. “However, it does suggest molecular paradigms which we can explore to perhaps achieve the same kind of effects in humans–but those are probably years or decades away.”