No Room In My Brain

I was surprised to read even Sherlock Holmes believed in the "no more roon in my brain" myth. In A Study In Scarlet:

 "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." 

Or as Homer Simpson would say, "every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain."

  

Traditionally, memory was viewed as similar to a book, which can be shelved but never changed once printed. We now think that memory is more like a word processing document – you can save it and then recall it, at which point you can adapt or even delete its contents.

Today's Independent reports on Dr Amy Milton's research using Propanolol, a beta-blocker, to treat alcoholics. The drug blocks memories that trigger relapses in aloholics. A simliar approach has also used to treat PTSD.