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TED Talks Daily

Can we edit memories? | Amy Milton

TED Talks Daily

TED

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4.111.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2020

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Trauma and PTSD rewire your brain -- especially your memory -- and can unearth destructive emotional responses when stirred. Could we eliminate these triggers without erasing the memories themselves? Enter neurologist Amy Milton's mind-blowing, memory-editing clinical research poised to defuse the damaging effects of painful remembered experiences and offer a potential path toward better mental health.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, I'm Elise Hugh with today's TED Talks Daily.

0:06.9

Are you haunted by a memory?

0:09.5

Is there a past experience that your mind just won't seem to let go?

0:14.8

Well, in her talk from TEDx Cambridge University,

0:17.6

neuroscientist Amy Milton gives us hope to overcome our painful memories and

0:21.9

cling to the ones that make us more whole.

0:26.6

Memory is such an everyday thing that we almost take it for granted. We all remember what we

0:32.8

had for breakfast this morning or what we did last weekend. It's only when memory starts to fail that we appreciate

0:38.7

just how amazing it is and how much we allow our past experiences to define us. But memory is not

0:46.6

always a good thing. As the American poet in clergyman, John Lancaster Spalding once said,

0:52.9

as memory may be a paradise from which we cannot be driven,

0:56.1

it may also be a hell from which we cannot escape.

1:00.7

Many of us experience chapters of our lives

1:03.6

that we would prefer to never have happened.

1:06.4

It's estimated that nearly 90% of us

1:09.0

will experience some sort of traumatic event during our lifetimes.

1:13.6

Many of us will suffer acutely following these events and then recover, maybe even become better people because of those experiences.

1:22.6

But some events are so extreme that many, up to half of those who survive sexual violence, for example,

1:30.7

will go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

1:36.6

PTSD is a debilitating mental health condition characterized by symptoms such as intense fear and anxiety

1:44.0

and flashbacks of the traumatic event.

1:47.6

These symptoms have a huge impact on a person's quality of life and are often triggered by

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