TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Hawaii's famed white sandy beaches are shrinking KAILUA, Hawaii (AP) -- Jenn Boneza remembers when the white sandy beach near the boat ramp in her hometown was wide enough for people to build sand castles.... hosted.ap.org |
NASA to launch sky-mapping spacecraft LOS ANGELES (AP) -- NASA's latest space telescope will scan the sky in search of never-before-seen asteroids, comets, stars and galaxies, with one of its main tasks to catalog objects posing a danger to Earth. The sky-mapping WISE, or Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, is scheduled to launch no earlier than before dawn Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast aboard a Delta 2 rocket.... hosted.ap.org |
'Rewritten' memories less traumatic Breakthrough could help treat phobias and anxiety disordersIn a breakthrough that has major implications for treating phobias and anxiety disorders, psychologists have helped people conquer their fears by "rewriting" their memories to make them less traumatic.The therapy takes advantage of the discovery that human memories can be modified and made less frightening if they are manipulated soon after they are retrieved.Scientists at New York University found peoples' memories were susceptible to being rewritten between three minutes and six hours of a memory being recalled. Only memories that were rewritten in this time frame remained changed a year after the treatment.Researchers led by Elizabeth Phelps carried out a conditioning experiment in which 20 volunteers sat in front of a computer screen on which squares of different colours appeared. When blue squares flashed on the screen, they received an electric shock to the wrist.The next day, the volunteers were shown blue squares again to reactivate the memory. Sensors placed on their skin showed that the images caused the participants to sweat as their stress levels rose.To erase the memory that linked blue squares with pain, the volunteers were put through "extinction training" which involved flashing blue squares on the screen without the accompanying electrical shocks.When the volunteers were retested a day later, the fear associated with the squares had gone, but only in participants whose memories were rewritten soon after their fear was reactivated, according to a report in Nature.Those who had extinction training after six hours did not lose their fear of blue squares. Instead of their original memory being rewritten, Phelps believes they gained a second memory – that the squares were harmless – which was stored alongside their original experience.The study shows human memories are susceptible to being modified in a specific time window called the "consolidation period", when the brain is trying to restore a memory that was recently retrieved.A year later, some volunteers returned to the laboratory and were given more electric shocks to try to bring back the fearful memories. Those whose fear memories had been rewritten during the "consolidation window" were largely immune to the shock treatment, while in the others the sense of fear was rekindled.The therapy is still at the experimental stage but it paves the way for treatments that could help people overcome traumatic memories without resorting to drugs."Previous attempts to disrupt fear memories have relied on pharmacological interventions," Phelps said. "Our results suggest such invasive techniques may not be necessary. Using a more natural intervention that captures the adaptive purpose of reconsolidation allows a safe way to prevent the return of fear."Medical researchPsychologyIan Sampleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Packing Tetrahedrons, and Closing In on a Perfect Fit A flurry of academic activity has focused on packing arrangements for a geometric solid that Aristotle wrongly thought would leave no gaps when stacked. feeds.nytimes.com |
Tuna stocks 'booming' at time of quota cuts Australia's southern bluefin tuna industry says stocks are booming and this year's catch will be six weeks sooner than usual. abc.net.au |