Ever wanted to get rid of your bad memories? Scientists have just found a way to do so using electroshock therapy. Exactly like the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind perhaps?

Dutch neuroscientists devised an electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to "target and disrupt patients' memory of a disturbing episode." Patients were shown two traumatic narratives in a slideshow and subjected to this technique after.
The team later prompted patients to recall only one of the stories by replaying part of that slide show. Immediately afterwards, when the reactivated memory is thought to be vulnerable, the patients received electroconvulsive therapy.

One day later, when given a multiple-choice memory test, patients were significantly worse at remembering details from the reactivated story, performing near chance. Patients' memory of the other story, however, remained largely unscathed.
The test was conducted on 42 patients with depression. If it worked on them, how much would they need to tune it down to for normal folks?

ECT is no walk in the park. It induces seizures.

But would you want your bad memories erased? After all, don't they serve as our experiences in life? Or are they sometimes just too traumatic to deal with? [Nature via Wired UK]