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To understand how memory works, how it is formed and gets stored in our brains, neuroscientists are developing new techniques to erase rats’ memories. At first glance, their work can look scary because it seems that for better or worse, our memories build our identity. As a consequence, we can’t help thinking about the implications of such research. Are we assisting in the birth of an Orwellian project? What if one day the techniques fell into the hands of a dangerous political party? What power could it give to the government? More than only accessing memories, they would penetrate into our brain, and manipulate our inner self and deep thoughts.

Martine Berrebi, a French psychologist in Paris, is convinced that an individual’s past builds his identity, helps him advance and look forward. “Erasing a memory would make a hole in our personal history,” she says. And even if that research could lead to treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patients, Berrebi assumes that a trauma has to be processed verbally in order to heal. “It will be reflected in the body. And the memory will resurface when a certain event brings it back to the forefront.” She strongly believes that it all has to do with something more than only neurological phenomena.

To get a sense of how random people sitting in cafes between the Fenway area in Boston, and the East and West Villages in New York City, react to the prospect of erasing memory, listen to the audio clips.

- If you had the power to erase memory, would you use it on yourself? On other people?

- What specific memory would you first erase?

-Where do you think your memories get stored? How do you think it works?

-How do you feel about knowing that scientists in their labs are currently erasing rats’ memory?

Marco Nguyen, a French cartoonist, drew his interpretation of the neuroscientists’ work.