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How Midazolam Can Help Us Understand
Human Memory: 3 Illustrations and a Proposal
for a New Methodology
Lynne Reder
Department of Psychology
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
reder@cmu.edu
Midazolam is a benzodiazepine commonly used as an anxiolytic in surgery. A
useful attribute of this drug is that it creates temporary, reversible, anterograde
amnesia. Studies involving healthy subjects given midazolam in one session and
saline in another, in a double-blind, cross-over design, provide insights into mem-
ory function. Several experiments will be described to illustrate the potential of
studying subjects with transient anterograde amnesia. This talk will also outline
how this drug can be used in combination with fMRI to provide more insights
about brain functioning than either method in isolation.
