In an experiment, an international team of researchers asked 37 participants to associate random words with negative images. They then aimed to reprogram half of these relationships and intervene in the bad memories.
AN EXPERIMENT WAS CONDUCTED WITH 37 PARTICIPANTS
Participants were presented with well-known databases of negative images, such as human injuries or dangerous animals, and positive images, such as tranquil landscapes or smiling children. On the first evening, participants received memory training to associate negative images with nonsense words generated for the study. The next day, after these memories were consolidated with sleep, half of the words were tried to be recoded by associating them with positive images.
On the second evening, audio recordings of nonsense words were played during the participants’ non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep phase, a period known to be important in memory storage. During this process, brain activities were monitored with electroencephalography (EEG). Theta wave activity in the brain, which is associated with emotional memory processing, was observed to increase in response to audio memory cues and was significantly higher for positive cues.
Surveys conducted the next day and a few days later found that participants were less able to recall bad memories mixed with positive memories. Positive memories associated with these words began to come to mind more often than negative ones and were evaluated from a more positive emotional perspective.
Experts stated that this method is promising and said, “We have seen that this procedure weakens the recall of negative memories and increases the involuntary revival of positive memories in the mind.”
(DHA)