Imagine you could permanently erase a traumatic memory… Would you?

While the idea might seem like it belongs to the realm of science fiction, researchers at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children have taken a first step towards turning this idea into reality, saying that they have found a way to successfully target and delete fear-based memories in laboratory mice.

Here's the full article;
http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/deleting-a-traumatic-memory-may-be-possible-study-1.3315289

wow dreams become a reality as i see 😮

>>2
Nope, still far off.
As far as I'm aware, experiments on memories that involve permanently altering the brain have only been performed in animals, with presumably less complex brain structures.
The way memory is formed and stored is still pretty much a black box. The claims that research are basing on, that RNA is involved in storing memories are dubious, because:
1.) The subjects are mice. They can't exactly talk, so measurements have to be done indirectly. It's entirely possible that those traumatic memories were not erased, but simply clouded or suppressed.
2.) The researchers made no distinction between implicit memory and explicit memory (or to be more precise, between episodic memory and other types of memories). This is important because humans' fear response is based not only on memories, but also bodily functions, as dictated by the amygdala. To say 'erase' is way too far-fetched.
3.) RNA manipulation involves a virus injection directly into the brain. Good luck convincing the ethics committee. And finding participants.
4.) They used to say the same thing about shock therapies. Any improvement?

>>3
I'll add another point.

The human brain is LARGE compared to a rat's brain. Plus the longer lifespan means more memories. Even the very first step, pinpointing the few neurons and network responsible for a certain episode of memory is practically impossible.

well steps by steps i think humans will be able to do that in the future ^^' at least i believe..

There's really no way to delete a traumatic memory currently, but there are ways to forget them. It's simple, but hard for people to do. It's simply to not think about it.
The more you think about something that has happened, the memory link becomes stronger and the images of the events become clearer in your mind. But simply not thinking about those events, going on with your life and letting that memory be left alone, the memory link becomes weak, forgotten almost. And by doing so, trying to go back to the memory, it will mostly be a blur in a sense.

This is our current way of "deleting" a memory, and it's fairly simple, but I know not everyone will be able to do so since most people are more emotional base than others, and so on and so forth.
So um, yeah.

Personally I feel like even if you removed the meme org itself, the trauma would likely remain, plus as human beings, we learn from our mistakes and fears, removing them just so that you can have an easier life in the short run can only hurt you in the long run. Human beings are the sums of our experiences and memories, if you take that away, what do you even have left at that point?

As someone who got the shit kicked out of him, no, I wouldn't. It would change the exact fabric of who I am, the person I am currently wouldn't exist without the memories of my dad stripping me naked, getting me on my knees and beating me or putting me in listed American torture positions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_position

If I delete those traumatic memories, yeah I'll never have PTSD ever again, have anxiety every time I see someone that remotely looks like my dad.

But what would I become? What would I end up as? This is a question I've contemplated for years.

I don't think erasing memories because they're bad or traumatic is very productive. Yes, it would be helpful to some people with PTSD, but if you look at the world and the state it's in, it clearly isn't perfect (social issues, politics, pollution, etc.). It's a fact that these things exist and erasing a memory instead of dealing with the problem head on is setting a bad example. If we want to make the world a good place to live, then we can't just pretend bad things aren't happening everyday. Another problem would be, say someone went through abuse and wishes to have those memories deleted, and that keeps happening with many others. Eventually, people might stop trying to counter abuse and punish them for it and instead focus on pretending there's nothing to worry about. This is just an exaggeration for what will happen but this is a microcosm for the real world. Instead of cleaning up messes, it would be better to try and make sure those messes don't happen in the first place. Would you rather live in a fake happy world or a genuine happy world?

I'm not really worried about this because most people seem to agree with me. But this is just my opinion on this.

I know what you guys are saying. Memories makes us the way we are. So yeah, I wouldn't do it.
The ones that should are the lost cause of ptsd people. You know the ones that are at risk of suicides.

It's an interesting scientific breakthrough and I'm sure it could potentially help a lot of people but I just gotta say ... this is literally the plot to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

This Advancement would be unequivocally better if it erase the negative emotions and trama but kept the memories in tact.
This would solve the Emotional tormoil while leaving evidence of the event untouch allowing the perp to be caught. (In the case of Rape, witnessing Murder, Torture ect.)

>>12 Can't erase "emotions" unless you erase the traumatic memories that caused them to have negative emotions in the first place, then you would have no eye witness, it would be like it never happened for them,

emotions and memories are two different things but can be interconnected through a traumatic time & event, which your brain is wired/geared to remember more because of evolution to help avoided the same situation it's a survival tactic.

I'd never erase those memories because no matter what those memories helped create who I am today.

I was totally thinking about the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the film discusses the idea of deleting traumatic memories. Jim Carey is in this film, funny actor imo.

That sounds dangerous and dumb tbh.

There's therapy centered around recalling lost traumatic memories for a reason :/

Learning to confront what happened is an important part of moving forward. Fake comfort--ignorant bliss--is not a solution imo.