Study shows false memories in human brains can be reversed as easily as they are created

A new study has established that false memories can be erased from the minds of people as easily as they are planted. According to the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volunteers were first made to believe something that never really happened, and then scientists used the same reverse strategy to erase those false memories. The study said the experiment is only successful when trying to erase those memories that are false and never happened. 

Several studies have proven that false memories can be easily planted into human brains by using the technique of repeating something again and again until the listener is convinced it actually happened to him/her or to someone he/she is related to. The psychological technique is mostly used in criminal trials to convince potential eyewitnesses about something that never happened or happened not how they remember. 

“We used two techniques to reduce false memory endorsement, source sensitization (alerting interviewees to possible external sources of the memories, e.g., family narratives) and false memory sensitization (raising the possibility of false memories being inadvertently created in memory interviews, delivered by a new interviewer). This reversed the false memory build-up over the first three interviews, returning false memory rates in both suggestion conditions to the baseline levels of the first interview,” the study claimed. 

How scientists erased false memories?

Now, scientists have established that those false memories can be easily undone by explaining that sometimes false memories can be created by asking people to recall something that never happened. According to the study, which conducted experiments on 52 volunteers, researchers first planted false memories by creating stories and then mixing them with something that happened in the past. Next, they told the volunteers that false memories can be created by repeatedly telling something that never happened and then asking someone close to verify, in this case, their parents. 

The study said researchers were able to return false memories back to the rates of the first interview, meaning they were able to erase false memories from the minds of volunteers. " In a 1-year follow-up (after the original interviews and debriefing), false memory rates further dropped to 5%, and participants overwhelmingly rejected the false events," the study said. 

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