What is more, the rats only forgot the association if the compound was present during the memory recall. If they were given the memory-blocking drug anisomycin in isolation, without being played the tone to make them recall the memory of the shock, nothing happened. This indicates that the drug does not inherently just make any particular kind of memory dissolve. Rather, there seems to be an interaction between an activated memory in the brain and this drug that leads to the memory being erased.
