The pill, taken in the hospital immediately after a traumatic event, would suppress memory molecules and block an event from being etched into long-term brain circuits, a process that takes between 12 and 24 hours.
Because memory takes time to form, he conjectured that drugs which block the action of these hormones soon after the trauma might decrease the intensity of the memory.
Access to stimulating activities appeared to block the harmful effects of oligomers on the cellular mechanisms underlying learning and memory, called long-term potentiation (LTP), researchers said.