How close are we to the selective memory engineering depicted in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Perhaps closer than you think. Neuroscientist Todd Sacktor demonstrates a drug that inhibits a chemical reaction between synapses, causing memories—even very old ones—to fall apart. The brain, in effect, returns to a “blank slate.” Understanding this process opens the door for someday being able to selectively erase memories in the human brain.
Read: The Biological Mechanism That Gives Life Meaning
More from this ongoing series: The Unbearable Lightness of Memory

This program is a part of The Big, the Small, and the Complex, a Series made possible with the support of The Kavli Prize.

Recorded June 2011; Posted August 2011