M.I.A.'s “Paper Planes” - A PTSD Cure? [Spotless Minds]
Playing M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” loudly at your next PTSD meeting might pave a road to recovery, New Scientist reports.
Gun shots and screams and other negative sensations from traumatic incidents can be neutered by playing the shit out of them in a friendlier context.
“The new procedure relies on a quirky property of memories called reconsolidation. The process of jogging a memory – with an emotional or sensory jolt, for instance – seems to make it malleable for a few hours. ... Here, doctors repeatedly deliver threatening cues – gun shots, for instance – in safe environments in hopes of drowning out the fearful associations.”
It’s called Extinction therapy and it works in rats right now but tomorrow?
“I’m a simple rat researcher. I’m in no way going to suggest that I’m going to step in and tell clinicians how they should treat their patients.”
Coward!
[ New Scientist ]
