Repressing bad memories for long enough can lead to us forgetting them completely, researchers claim.
Scientists used EEG scans to monitor the parts of the brain that became active when volunteers actively tried to forget something.
All in the mind: Repressing bad memories for long enough can lead to us forgetting them completely, researchers claim
A team from Lund University in Sweden said that mastering the technique could be useful for people who suffer from depression or post traumatic stress disorder, where constantly dwelling on upsetting or traumatic memories has a devastating effect on mental health.
Lead researcher Gerd Waldhauser said: 'We know that "forgotten" or repressed feelings often manifest themselves as physiological reactions.
'Our volunteers were trained to forget neutral information in a controlled laboratory environment. Training to forget a traumatic event would be more complex.'
He added: 'Our study has not only shown that we can deliberately forget things.
'Through EEG measurements, it has also managed to capture the exact moment when the memory is inhibited, that is when the forgetfulness is imposed.
'The inhibition of memory eases off after a few hours. But the more often information is suppressed, the more difficult it becomes to retrieve it.
'If the memories have been suppressed over a long period of time, they could be extremely difficult to retriee.'
