Abstract
Why do some individuals experience intrusive emotional memories following stressful or traumatic events whereas others do not? Attentional control may contribute to the development of such memories by shielding attention to ongoing tasks from affective reactions to task-irrelevant emotional stimuli. The present study investigated whether individual differences in theability to exert cognitive control are associated with experiencing intrusive emotional memories after laboratory trauma. Sixty-one healthy women provided self-reported and experimentally derived measures of attentional control. They then viewed a trauma film in the laboratory and recorded intrusive memories for one week using a diary. Gaze avoidance during trauma film exposure was associated with more intrusive memories. Greater attentional control over emotion prior to film viewing, as assessed with the experimental task, predicted fewer intrusive memories while self-reported attentional control was unrelated to intrusive memories. Preexisting capacity to shield information processing from distraction may protect individuals from developing intrusive emotional memories following exposure to stress or trauma. These findings provide important clues for prevention and intervention science.
Highlights
Unbidden experience of emotional memories is a core symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma and stressor-related disorders [1]
We replicated previous findings and found a significant conflict adaptation effect (t58 = 2.99, p = 0.004, t-test on CA > 0, two-tailed,) indicating that conflict on incongruent trials is resolved faster when preceded by incongruent trials compared to when preceded by congruent trials, which do not entail the resolution of conflict and related up-regulatory processes [34]
Individuals with greater capacity to cognitively control emotional distraction reported fewer intrusive memories over the course of one week after experimental trauma exposure
Summary
Unbidden experience of emotional memories is a core symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma and stressor-related disorders [1]. Cognitive control comprises a number of candidate processes, such as response inhibition, conflict monitoring, decision making and cognitive flexibility, that may all be involved in the development of intrusive emotional memories [12,13,14]. These mental operations that jointly allow variation in information processing and behavior to meet contextual demands. They include maintaining a current goal in working memory and the ability to resolve conflict between task-relevant stimuli and distractors [15, 16]. Pursuing trauma-unrelated tasks requires attentional resources to be tuned to task-relevant activities in the presence of strong negative emotions that may trigger intrusive memories
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