如何消除恐懼
【英文原文】
Banishing Fear
Banishing Fear: Researchers erased traumatic memories in adult mice by destroying the molecular 'net' surrounding the relevant neurons, according to a report in Science. After a certain age, netlike structures of proteins and sugars in the amygdala -- the region of the brain responsible for making and altering memories -- make recollections of fear erasure-resistant. But the researchers were able to reverse this process in adult mice by injecting them with an enzyme that breaks down the nets. To test their method, they conditioned these mice, as well as a control group, to fear a sound by pairing it with an electric shock. Then the researchers tried get the mice to forget those fears by playing the sound but not delivering a shock. Both sets of mice temporarily overcame their fear of the sound after reconditioning, but the mice that had been injected with the enzyme did so much faster. More impressively, one month later the treated mice appeared to completely forget the traumatic experience -- as if these adult mice had the brains of much younger mice -- while the control group had resumed fearing the sound.
Caveat: The study was conducted on mice only. More research is required before such findings can be generalized to the management and erasure of human fears.
【中文譯文】
根據《科學》（Science）雜誌的一篇報導，研究人員通過破壞圍繞着成年小鼠相關神經元的分子“網”，消除了小鼠的創傷記憶。在特定年齡後，杏仁體(大腦中負責製造和更改記憶的區域)中蛋白質和糖的網狀結構使恐懼記憶產生抗消除性。但是，通過注射一種分解網狀結構的 ，研究人員能夠逆轉成年小鼠身上的這種過程。爲了檢驗他們的方法，研究人員對這些小鼠以及一個對照組播放某種聲音並配以電擊，使其形成害怕聲音的條件反射。然後，研究人員播放聲音但不進行電擊，試着讓小鼠忘記恐懼。在重新形成條件反射後，兩組小鼠都暫時克服了對聲音的恐懼，但注射了 的小鼠克服得更快。更讓人印象深刻的是，一個月後，接受 注射的小鼠看來完全忘記了創傷經歷──就像這些成年小鼠擁有年輕得多的小鼠的大腦一樣──但對照組重新開始恐懼聲音。
注意：該項研究只對小鼠進行。在此類發現推廣到控制和消除人類恐懼之前，還需要進行更多研究。
