令人烦恼的记忆

记载着挫折、恐惧、绝望等负性情绪的负性记忆,具有难以遗忘、令人烦恼的特点,与一些脑重大疾病,如创伤后应激综合征、抑郁症等存在密切关系。研究表明NMDA受体依赖性长时程增强在记忆的获取、储存等过程中起着关键作用。电休克和NMDA受体拮抗剂氯胺酮已知可导致短暂性遗忘,应用于治疗创伤后应激综合征、抑郁症具有起效快、疗效好的显著特点,提示这类脑疾病可能与负性记忆的遗忘特点有关。最近报道,遗忘具有独立的分子机理,在记忆和遗忘机理的共同作用下,既可能发生"记不住"如老年痴呆症、也可能出现"忘不了"如创伤后应激综合征和抑郁症等。深入研究遗忘的细胞分子机理,无疑有助于我们认识、预防和治疗相关脑重大疾病。

Annoying memories

The negative memories vividly recording individuals＇ negative feelings such as frustration, fear, despair, and etc. often have the unforgettable and annoying characteristics, which could relate to posttraumatic stress disorder （PTSD） and major depressive disorder （MDD） etc. Ample studies have demonstrated that the NMDA receptor-dependent long-term potentiation （LTP） is crucial for the formation, storage and retrieval of memory. Electric convulsion therapy （ECT） and the NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine known to cause transient amnesia are the best available way to produce fast action and excellent efficacy in the treatment of PTSD/MDD. Recent studies demonstrated that forgetting likely has its own molecular mechanisms independent from those of learning and memory, implicating that memory and forgetting if working together could possibly lead to either ＂cannot remember＂ such as Alzheimer＇s disease or ＂cannot forgetting＂ such as PTSD/MDD. Therefore, the research to reveal the molecular and cellular mechanisms of forgetting would help us to understand, and potentially prevent and treat not only the memory problems, but also the related brain disorders.