Emetophobia can stem from horrible memories of being sick or vomiting that entrenched themselves in your brain, only to surface in the form of vomit anxiety and fears. Science may come to the rescue for your vomit phobia with a new technique that can erase the memories that gave you those fears in the first place.
A study published in Science explains how scientists are able to erase fears and other emotional memories by throwing a monkey wrench into the way your brain’s consolidation process.
Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden tested the theory by showing study participants non-arousing pictures of landscapes and other “neutral” images then subjecting the subjects to electric shock. This resulted in a brain process that automatically formed a negative connotation to the particular images.
Researchers then showed the images again without administering electric shock “during the period of time over which the brain fixes the memory in place,” a Gizmodo.com article explained.
Voila! Fear was no longer associated with the images.
Such a process has potential not only for erasing vomit phobia and fears but dozens of other worries and woes.
Read full article: http://gizmodo.com/5945196/scientists-develop-technique-to-erase-your-fears
Check out the study: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6101/1550
