Neurologists believe they have come a step closer to being able to erase unshakable haunting memories.
In research sounding like the plot of a sci-fi film, a group of researchers believes it has found the gene which performs the role of memory extinction.
The process, which occurs when new memories overwrite old ones, is being treated as the key to eventually being able to completely delete painful memories.
The research could lead to medical advances and the successful treatment of those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or sufferers tormented by earlier experiences.
Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America conducted the study.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
They say that if a way can be found to amplify the activity of the gene, known as Tet1, it could change lives.
The research echoes the 2004 Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which memories are wiped.
As part of their study, the researchers compared learning behaviour of mice with the Tet1 to mice who had their version of the gene inhibited, or as the scientists put it, "knocked out".
Both sets were trained to fear a certain cage by giving them a mild electric shock each time they were placed inside.
Mice whose Tet1 was "knocked out" learned to associate the cage with the shock, just like the normal mice.
But when the researchers put the mice back in the same cage without delivering the shock, the two groups behaved differently.
To the astonishment of scientists, mice with the Tet1 gene did not fear the cage, because their memory of being hurt had already been replaced by new information.
But the knockout mice, whose memories were not replaced, were still traumatised by the experience.
The research appears in a September issue of the journal Neuron.
