Neuralizers are they real

Would it be possible to create a device that wipes peoples memory such as the neuralizer from men in black.
I understand this may be quite an abstract idea, but it came about in a strange sort of way.

So I was sitting in my room writing and I was drifting of to sleep so I pressed the corner of my phone just underneath my eye as the corner is always cold and wakes me up a little. As I did this I got an email through which makes a bright blue light flash up and it flashed straight in my eye, which made me completely forget what I was about to write. That is where I got this idea about it being possible to wipe someone's memory through a sort of bright light.

To start with it is hard to go into detail with this sort of idea when discussing humans as you can't just experiment on people however you like, though the same cannot be said for rats and mice; so I will mostly be talking about experiments that have been done on rats and mice.

What is a memory?

Memory is a set of encoded connections in the brain. It is the re-creation or reconstruction of past experiences by the synchronous firing of neurons that were involved in the original experience.

So you see, hear, smell or just think of something that sets of a reaction in your brain where a signal is fired from one area to another and then your brain starts to rebuild a scenario piece by piece. This is why you can never fully trust a memory, as every time you remember an event your brain has to re-create it from scratch and it will likely get something a little wrong each time.

As a memory has to be re-created, it isn't stored like a picture, this means that you can interfere with this re-creation process even when a memory has been converted into your hippocampus it can still be blocked.

We know this as a study was done on mice where over time they were given normal water to drink and a liquid that would upset their stomach, I will refer to water as liquid A and the other liquid as liquid B, they quickly learnt that liquid A was fine to drink and liquid B would make the ill.

The scientist then gave these mice a drug that blocked a chemical in their brain called PKMzeta, which is involved in the memory re-creation process, after the mice were given this drug the completely forgot that liquid B did anything bad to them. The mice could even be given the drug after a number of weeks and they would still forget that liquid B would make them ill.

So from this we know that through taking protein blocking drugs memories can be taken away, which is a very important step in this process.

Memory and light

So we now know that memories can be removed through taking a drug, however can the same be done through the use of light. First we need to understand briefly the connection between light and our brains.

To start we all know that light effects our brain to some extend because we all experience it, for example most people will struggle to fall asleep if they are in a very bright room and in turn find it easier to fall asleep in a less lit environment.

Studies also show that of you work in a bright office that is well lit throughout the day you will remember more of what you have done throughout the day, along with you being able to work more efficiently up until the later hours of the working day. Then if the office is quite dim throughout the day you will remember less and you energy levels will significantly fall of toward the end of the day.

So we know that light can affect brain function to an extent but back to the main question. Can it be used to wipe memories?

A separate study took place again on mice involving wiping memories, however this team actually used light in their tests. This test was done through having a mouse step into a normal cage and stay there for a short time, then the mouse was moved to a slightly different cage where it received a small electric shock.

After this the mice would remember the cage that hurt them and if they were put into that cage they would stand still in fear.

However these mice were not regular mice, they were energetically modified through optogenetics so that when nerve cells were activated they would light up green and express a protein that allows cells to be switched off by light. They were then able to follow which cells were used in re-creating the memory of being shocked and then turn them of through light directed by a fibre-optic cable.

Through looking at what this study tells us we can see what cells are used in re-creating a memory and knowing the correct cells to target is very important as you know what type of cell to target. We also know the protein or enzyme that helps re-create memory from the first experiment.

We also know that light can stimulate different parts of the brain, so theoretically all you need to do is find the correct wavelength of light that will manipulate the correct protein or enzyme that works with the cells we know to re-create memories, and you can wipe out memories through light.

So to answer my origination question yes theoretically you can wipe out a memory through the flash of a light.

However actually targeting a specific memory is a whole other thing as we can you can target the cells that are used to re-create memories as a whole but if you were to do that it could completely erase a person's entire memory and permanently effect their capability of remembering anything.

I guess you never know men in black could actually be real and we might all be having our memories wiped on a regular basis. Maybe wearing some strong sunglasses might be a good idea in the future