The worst feeling in the world is when you are so close to recalling something that happened in the past but are unable to. Forgetting something is a part of life especially when sleep-deprived or tired. Recalling a little piece of information can become a tedious chore.
But scientists claim that one can get access to those little pieces of information that one lost during sleep or in the past. They claim that ‘forgotten memories’ can be reobtained with a prescription drug that treats pulmonary diseases, such as asthma or chronic bronchitis
These prescriptive drugs can activate brain cells to bring back older memories. The neuroscientist Robert Havekes who works at the University of Groningen conducted an experiment with his team to bring memories back in mice.
His team put objects in the cage and used 6 hours of sleep-deprived mice to identify those objects. However, the experiment showed that after few days, the mice forget to identify the objects and changed their course. But when the neuroscientist used a ‘signal of light’ or drug ‘roflumilast’ at the mice’s hippocampus (part of brain for memories).
This experiment shows that mice can remember older information if certain neurons are activated in the hippocampus. Robert said, “The information was, in fact, stored in the brain, but just difficult to retrieve.’
Scientists are planning to develop something like this for humans so they can benefit from the research and remember their forgotten memories.
