She had studied his features when the crime happened, and had later identified him both in pictures and in person. Based on her testimony, Ronald C. was sentenced to life in 1986. Eleven years later, though, a DNA test revealed that another man, named Bobby P., was the real attacker. The reversal made headlines in June this year in several major papers, including the New York Times. Now, a new study from New York University published in the August 17 issue of Nature may provide an answer.
Most memories are in fact short-lived and easily forgotten.
And this process requires not only structural changes in nerve cells but the synthesis of new proteins in these cells. Scientists long believed that after this consolidation, memories were pretty stable and not easily disturbed. As it turns out, they were wrong. Once the animals were so conditioned, the researchers played the tone again. Of interest, this fear amnesia occurred only when the infusion and the memory reactivation happened at the same time.