Unlocking the Emotional Brain offers psychotherapists and counselors methods at the forefront of clinical and neurobiological knowledge for creating profound change regularly in day-to-day practice.

This chapter provides a comprehensive review of research on reconsolidation in humans to date. It examines the different techniques that have been used to explore memory reconsolidation in humans and highlights some of the unique challenges that arise when investigating reconsolidation in human participants. Through this survey of existing studies, we explore some of the reasons why this science has been slow to emerge, and we suggest some potential avenues for future research.

As little as 10 years ago, it was believed that memory went from short to long term via one consolidation practice that made that memory intractable. Since then, research has shown that long-term memories can be activated, modified, and reconsolidated in their new form. This research indicates that memories are more dynamic than once believed. And understanding how this process works and helping people to redefine established memories can be clinically useful if those memories lead to problems, as is the case in post-traumatic stress disorder. This book provides a comprehensive overview of research on memory reconsolidation; what this has to say about the formation, storage, and changeability of memory; and the potential applications of this research to treating clinical disorders. - Presents both neuroscience and psychological research on memory reconsolidation - Discusses what findings mean for understanding memory formation, storage, and retrieval - Includes treatment applications of these findings

Memory reconsolidation (MR)—a foundational process with the potential, if properly understood, to consistently bring about the kind of transformational change that we look for in the lives of clients—is the subject of this book. Featured in this issue is Bruce Ecker, one of the foremost experts in applying techniques that fulfil the neurobiological requirements to achieve MR in clinical practice. In fact all of the authors in this issue are experts in their respective fields, demonstrating the unifying nature of MR in such diverse therapies as the Alexander technique, energy psychology, neuro-linguistic programming, and progressive counting. Understanding the biological basis of our memory and how it can be modified is the key to effective therapeutic change, especially when emotional memories are driving unwanted symptoms.The content of this special issue has been previously published in The Neuropsychotherapist or the International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy.

This chapter highlights the connections between research on memory reconsolidation and central ideas in memory research, considering the substantial body of work produced within the neurosciences as well as cognitive psychology–two fields that, at the beginning of our science in the past century, were not as separated as they are now. We advance the basic idea that the reconsolidation phenomenon indicates that memory systems are inherently flexible, based on processes that constantly adapt existing memory representations to improve behavioral performance. These mechanisms are likely of meta-plastic nature, and they will play out on the levels of cognition and behavior. We discuss possible meta-plastic mechanisms that mediate reconsolidation. We then briefly discuss how reconsolidation might explain certain cognitive memory malleability phenomena, such as the misinformation effect and memory interference.

This book breaks new ground by offering neuroscientific insights into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD has emerged as the model mental disorder for studying the effect of the environment on human biological systems, especially the brain. The authors – who range from skilled basic scientists to experienced diagnosticians and therapists – are leaders in the recent surge of biological investigation into this distressing and disabling condition.