Researchers from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University showed that they can selectively knock out the memories associated with cocaine, a finding that may help in the development of new ways to overcome addiction.

Addicts crave drugs and suffer relapse not just because of the alluring high of drugs, but also because they are compelled by the powerful, haunting memory associations with the environment surrounding their drug taking. Thus, treatments that could eliminate those memory associations could prove effective in treating addiction.

In a paper published in the scientific journal Neuron earlier this month, Dr Jonathan Lee, working with Professor Barry Everitt and their colleagues in their MRC-funded laboratory, showed that they can selectively knock out memory associations connected with receiving cocaine.

The researchers’ purpose was to test the effects of treatment on a memory process called ‘reconsolidation.’ The theory underlying reconsolidation is that when memories are recalled they become malleable, subject to disruption.

"Drug-associated stimuli are critically important in the acquisition of prolonged periods of drug-seeking behaviour. Therefore, the ability to disrupt retroactively the conditioned reinforcing properties of a drug cue provides a potentially powerful and novel approach to the treatment of drug addiction by diminishing the behavioral impact of drug cues and thereby relapse," said Dr Lee.

The Cambridge team points out that the basic processes of such drug-associated memory reconsolidation are distinct enough from normal memory that it is possible to manipulate pre-existing maladaptive memories in a highly specific manner, without affecting either the reconsolidation of other established memories or the consolidation of new memories.

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