title: Reducing false memories by magnetic pulse stimulation.
abstract: False memories are ubiquitous and often to our detriment. Yet, certain pathologies, including anterior temporal lobe dementia and autism, can lead to literal recall and thus greater resistance to false memories. This inspired us to reduce false memories by temporarily inhibiting the left anterior temporal lobe, using low frequency magnetic pulse stimulation. This site has been implicated in semantic memory and conceptual labelling. After active stimulation, participants in the sham/TMS group had 36% fewer false memories than they had with sham stimulation, and intact veridical memory. This is comparable to the improvement that people with autism and semantic dementia show over "normal" individuals. This finding suggests a potential method for reducing certain types of false memories.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Mind, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gallate
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ellwood
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Snyder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult