Neuroscience Explains This Is How You Can Turn a Bad Memory Into a Good One

Almost regardless of what actually happened to create the memory.

EXPERT OPINION BY JEFF HADEN @JEFF_HADEN

Illustration: Getty Images

I was talking to onetime neighbor about the time the river in front of our houses flooded. We both had to evacuate. We both suffered extensive damage to our properties. He remembered it as a hugely traumatic event.

I remember it fondly.

Same event. Two very different reactions. How?

Neuroscientists call the process of linking a feeling with a memory “valence assignment.” Once we experience something, our brains automatically associate it with a positive or negative feeling — a valence — if only so then we know whether to seek or avoid a similar experience in the future. 

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For him, the flood was a bad memory. Costly, harrowing, horrible. For me, it’s an oddly fun memory. Helping elderly neighbors into a rowboat. Rowing back over to the house the next day and having to tie up to my deck. Meeting the Amish folks who came down from Pennsylvania to volunteer their time and effort. To me? Bad event, but oddly great experience.

How valence assignment happens at a cellular level is unclear. Scientists know that different sets of neurons are activated when a valence is positive, and others when a valence is negative. 

Referring to a study published in Nature, “We found these two pathways — analogous to railroad tracks — that were leading to positive and negative valence,” says professor Kay Tye, “but we still didn’t know what signal was acting as the switch operator to direct which track should be used at any given time.” 

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