What do you guys think of memory reconsolidation? Is it possible to use this process in psychotherapy to erase fear memories, change long-standing habits and personality traits? Why isn't it getting the attention it deserves?
Technically, everything you've learned is stored in some kind of memory, so logically any type of actual change has to create new memories or update/erase old ones. It seems that therapy in its current form only focuses on the first type of change, learning to suppress and ignore the symptom producing learning instead of actually changing it at its core. For instance, if someone has a phobia of spiders, the memory that produces the fear response is never actually erased, you simply practice different kinds of counter-acting behavior like relaxation techniques and emotional management which forms another memory that competes with the original for activation. This produces change that isn't stable and requires willpower and maintenance, the original memory will win out when the person is stressed or not paying enough attention.
There seems to be a lot of conflicting views on it and researchers can't seem to even agree on rules and requirements of the process. For instance, some think that only reactivation of the original memory is required, but others believe that there has to be a prediction error which then turns the memory labile. Then when it comes to clinical translation, there have been successful cases of treating phobias with drugs that block reconsolidation of the fear inducing memory, but there's also others that claim that the process doesn't require pharmacological methods and can treat any emotional learning induced symptoms.
A good paper that goes over a lot of research:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325718926_Clinical_Translation_of_Memory_Reconsolidation_Research_Therapeutic_Methodology_for_Transformational_Change_by_Erasing_Implicit_Emotional_Learnings_Driving_Symptom_Production
Technically, everything you've learned is stored in some kind of memory, so logically any type of actual change has to create new memories or update/erase old ones. It seems that therapy in its current form only focuses on the first type of change, learning to suppress and ignore the symptom producing learning instead of actually changing it at its core. For instance, if someone has a phobia of spiders, the memory that produces the fear response is never actually erased, you simply practice different kinds of counter-acting behavior like relaxation techniques and emotional management which forms another memory that competes with the original for activation. This produces change that isn't stable and requires willpower and maintenance, the original memory will win out when the person is stressed or not paying enough attention.
There seems to be a lot of conflicting views on it and researchers can't seem to even agree on rules and requirements of the process. For instance, some think that only reactivation of the original memory is required, but others believe that there has to be a prediction error which then turns the memory labile. Then when it comes to clinical translation, there have been successful cases of treating phobias with drugs that block reconsolidation of the fear inducing memory, but there's also others that claim that the process doesn't require pharmacological methods and can treat any emotional learning induced symptoms.
A good paper that goes over a lot of research:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325718926_Clinical_Translation_of_Memory_Reconsolidation_Research_Therapeutic_Methodology_for_Transformational_Change_by_Erasing_Implicit_Emotional_Learnings_Driving_Symptom_Production
