Uh...yeah...OK then.
This is true.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34370302/ns/health-mental_health/
Now, scientists are finding our memories get consolidated over and over again each time we retrieve a certain bit of information. Let’s say we see a snake: At that moment our brains pull out past information we’ve stored on snakes, such as a close encounter with one. By revisiting the snake memory a portal of sorts opens, and that memory is open to manipulation.
From past studies, scientists think that the window of opportunity opens up between three and 10 minutes after spotting the snake, or its equivalent. And it stays open for at least an hour, but no longer than six hours, Phelps said.
The research team “seized the moment” by changing the fearful information before the memory got reconsolidated or sealed up again.
In the first of two experiments on humans, Phelps and her colleagues had participants view colored boxes on a computer screen, one of which was paired with a mild electric shock. This process conditioned participants to react fearfully to a blue square. They tested the participants’ skin conductance, a measure of arousal, to confirm the conditioning worked.
The next day the researchers showed participants the blue square, a reminder of the object, which was intended to reactivate their memory and initiate the reconsolidation process (memory gets brought out of long-term storage and lingers in this unstable place).
This time, however, the blue square wasn’t paired with a shock, a way to teach participants that the object was now “safe.” Since the researchers had a rough estimate of when the reconsolidation window opened and closed, they varied the timing of this safe information.