A new PNAS paper
casts doubt on an influential theory of memory. The reconsolidation hypothesis holds that when a memory is recalled, its molecular trace in the brain becomes plastic, meaning that the memory has to be consolidated or ‘saved’ all over again in order for it to persist. In other words, remembering makes a memory vulnerable to being modified or erased. Reconsolidation has generated lots of research interest and even speculation that blocking reconsolidation could be used as a tool to ‘wipe’ memories. Much of the evidence for reconsolidation comes from experiments on animals, but there's also some human evidence - in particular, a much-cited 2003 Nature article by Walker et al. However, in the new paper, UCL researchers Tom Hardwicke and colleagues say that they were unable to replicate Walker et al.'s landmark findings. Here's the key data in Hardwicke et al.'s paper:
Volunteers were trained on a ...
