Targeted Memory Erasure

Targeted Memory Erasure is a non-surgical procedure for the focused erasure of memories, particularly unwanted and painful memories. Technically speaking, the targeted memory erasure process is actually a form of brain damage, but on par with a night of heavy alcohol drinking. The procedure is performed exclusively by the Lacuna Incorporated company.

History
Lacuna Inc. is the brainchild of Dr. Howard Mierzwiak who after years of dedicated neurobiological research developed a painless method for identifying and erasing specific memories. Lacuna Inc. was founded to provide a state of the art research facility for the development of this procedure. Over the years, the project has progressed from a mere idea into a full-blown medical service.

With hundreds of satisfied customers already, Lacuna Inc. is developing a strong reputation in the medical community. The procedure is offered to men and women of all ages, and it is perfectly safe.

Preparing for the procedure
After a patient decides of the specifics of what memory he/she is going to have erased, there is some initial preparation that goes into a successful procedure. The patient is instructed to collect any items or mementos that have any ties to the memory/memories being targeted. These items will be used by the Lacuna team during and disposed of following the procedure. This is to ensure that the patient won't have any unexplainable items after the memory erasure.

Mapping the memory
While connected to a brain scanning device, the patient is instructed to look at the items, and while re-experience the unwanted memories technicians scan brain activity, allowing them to chart and record where the memories are located. The team of Lacuna technicians will use the information they have received from the patient to create a map of the memory. They will then use this map to extract the memory from the patients mind.

The Procedure
Following the map created specifically for every patient, that patient takes a sedative. A team then uses a device that systematically re-triggers all the memories they've recorded. As they're re-triggered, the targeted memories gradually dissolve while the device erases them. The procedure works on a reverse timeline, which means it begins with the most recent memories and goes backwards in time. This approach is designed to target the emotional core that every memory builds on. By eradicating the core, Lacuna technicians are able to make the entire memory dissolve. When the patient wakes up from the surgery, they remember nothing.

Due to the nature of this procedure, there is no need for post-operative treatment.

The Science of the Process
The brain stores emotional memories very differently from unemotional ones. Negative emotional memories, for instance, capture more details about the experience than positive ones. Particularly traumatic memories appear to be captured by two separate parts of the brain: the hippocampus, the normal seat of memory, and the amygdala, one of the brain's emotional centers.

Memories get rewritten every time they're activated, through a process called "reconsolidation." Simply put, the very act of recalling a stored memory erases it from storage and to preserve it, it must be stored anew. Instead of simply recalling a memory that had been forged days or months ago, the brain is forging it all over again, in a new associative context. In a sense, when we remember something, we create a new memory, one that is shaped by the changes that have happened to our brain since the memory last occurred to us.

To create a memory - synaptic connection between two neurons - the associative link that is at the heart of all neuronal learning - you need protein synthesis. If protein synthesis is blocked in a human brain while triggering a memory, the memory is not restored. This is what the targeted memory erasure procedure does.