People with post-traumatic stress disorder, constantly relive terrible experiences. In the last few years, there has been a huge body of work on the neural mechanisms of fear memories, writes University of Michigan neuroscientist Stephen Maren in a recent review in Neuron. “There is now considerable evidence that they can be erased.”

Selectively erasing past memories could one day possibly eliminate post-traumatic stress disorder. “We think it”s bad not to treat people”s physical wounds,” says Adam Kolber, a bioethics researcher at Brooklyn College. “Shouldn”t we also do our best to treat people”s emotional wounds?”

But would this be ethical? Remorse keeps behavior in check. Without it, people could do terrible things without any fear of crippling regret. And the pain of violence is part of what motivates victims to prosecute assailants, and helps them avoid similar trauma in the future.

Something to think about.

[Based on “Wiping the Slate”, Ian Chant, Psychology Today, April, 2012]