By Anonymous -
Imagine if human’s had the ability to express or suppress any thought of their choice.  A new study reports that neuroscientists have recently discovered a chemical within the memory region of our brain that creates the ability to inhibit unpleasant thoughts.  The study was referred to as the ‘Think/No-Think’ procedure and its goal was to identify any neuro-processes that may enable the prefrontal cortex to suppress any unwanted thoughts.  In the first stage of the study, subjects were asked to associate two unconnected words, specifically “ordeal” and “roach.”  Then, the participants were asked to recall the association if the cue was colored green, and suppress the association if the cue was colored red.  So, if the word “ordeal” was presented in red, the subject was asked to stare at the phrase but refrain from connecting it to the recently learned association.  Magnetic resonance imaging, as well as magnetic resonance spectroscopy, helped aid the discovery of the physiological changes when attempting to inhibit an unpleasant image or thought.  The study proved that the ability to suppress unwanted memories depends on the neurotransmitter GABA.  The researchers came to the conclusion that GABA concentration within the hippocampus correlates to one’s ability to not only block the retrieval of a thought, but also prevent the thought from returning.  Additionally, according to their findings, “less hippocampal GABA were less able to suppress hippocampal activity by the prefrontal cortex- and as a result much worse at inhibiting unwanted thoughts”

In a broad sense, the above research article links to this course due to emotion being present in everyday life. But more specifically, according to the Emotion PowerPoint, the presence of severe and prolonged negative emotions can lead to clinical disorders. Likewise, impairment to the prefrontal cortex can also lead to dysfunctions -such as violence, depression, and schizophrenia. The inability of the prefrontal cortex to successfully inhibit other emotional areas could cause deficiencies in additional branches of the limbic system.  In theory, disruption to rational and emotional judgment could cause an individual to misperceive a given situation, causing a wrongful uplift of a negative emotion, created by the amygdala.  That emotion can potentially be stored in memory via hippocampus. Then, in turn, with the lack of the neurotransmitter GABA, an individual will face much difficulty when attempting to prevent the retrieval and expression of a given negative emotion.


University of Cambridge (2017, November 3). Mechanism That Helps Us Inhibit Unwanted   Thoughts Identified. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved November 3, 2017 from http://neurosciencenews.com/unwanted-thoughts-inhibited-7862/

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