van Veen Suzanne Chantal, van Schie Kevin, Wijngaards-de Meij Leoniek D N V, Littel Marianne, Engelhard Iris M, van den Hout Marcel A
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University , Utrecht , Netherlands.
Department of Methodology and Statistics of Social Science Research, Utrecht University , Utrecht , Netherlands.
Front Psychiatry. 2015 Apr 7;6:45. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00045. eCollection 2015.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an efficacious treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. In EMDR, patients recall a distressing memory and simultaneously make eye movements (EM). Both tasks are considered to require limited working memory (WM) resources. Because this leaves fewer resources available for memory retrieval, the memory should become less vivid and less emotional during future recall. In EMDR analogue studies, a standardized procedure has been used, in which participants receive the same dual task manipulation of 1 EM cycle per second (1 Hz). From a WM perspective, the WM taxation of the dual task might be titrated to the WM taxation of the memory image. We hypothesized that highly vivid images are more affected by high WM taxation and less vivid images are more affected by low WM taxation. In study 1, 34 participants performed a reaction time task, and rated image vividness, and difficulty of retrieving an image, during five speeds of EM and no EM. Both a high WM taxing frequency (fast EM; 1.2 Hz) and a low WM taxing frequency (slow EM; 0.8 Hz) were selected. In study 2, 72 participants recalled three highly vivid aversive autobiographical memory images (n = 36) or three less vivid images (n = 36) under each of three conditions: recall + fast EM, recall + slow EM, or recall only. Multi-level modeling revealed a consistent pattern for all outcome measures: recall + fast EM led to less emotional, less vivid and more difficult to retrieve images than recall + slow EM and recall only, and the effects of recall + slow EM felt consistently in between the effects of recall + fast EM and recall only, but only differed significantly from recall + fast EM. Crucially, image vividness did not interact with condition on the decrease of emotionality over time, which was inconsistent with the prediction. Implications for understanding the mechanisms of action in memory modification and directions for future research are discussed.
眼动脱敏再处理疗法（EMDR）是治疗创伤后应激障碍的一种有效方法。在EMDR治疗中，患者回忆一段痛苦的记忆，同时进行眼球运动（EM）。这两项任务都被认为需要有限的工作记忆（WM）资源。由于这样可用于记忆检索的资源减少，那么在未来回忆时，这段记忆应该会变得不那么生动，情感色彩也会减弱。在EMDR模拟研究中，使用了一种标准化程序，即参与者每秒接受相同的双任务操作，即1个EM周期（1Hz）。从工作记忆的角度来看，双任务对工作记忆的负荷可以根据记忆图像对工作记忆的负荷进行调整。我们假设，高度生动的图像受高工作记忆负荷的影响更大，而不太生动的图像受低工作记忆负荷的影响更大。在研究1中，34名参与者在五种眼球运动速度和无眼球运动的情况下执行了一项反应时间任务，并对图像的生动程度以及检索图像的难度进行了评分。选择了高工作记忆负荷频率（快速眼球运动；1.2Hz）和低工作记忆负荷频率（慢速眼球运动；0.8Hz）。在研究2中，72名参与者在三种条件下分别回忆三张高度生动的厌恶自传体记忆图像（n = 36）或三张不太生动的图像（n = 36）：回忆+快速眼球运动、回忆+慢速眼球运动或仅回忆。多层次建模显示，所有结果测量指标都呈现出一致的模式：与回忆+慢速眼球运动和仅回忆相比，回忆+快速眼球运动导致图像的情感色彩减弱、生动程度降低且更难检索，回忆+慢速眼球运动的效果始终介于回忆+快速眼球运动和仅回忆的效果之间，但仅与回忆+快速眼球运动有显著差异。至关重要的是，图像生动程度与随着时间推移情感性降低的条件之间没有相互作用，这与预测结果不一致。文中讨论了对于理解记忆修改作用机制的意义以及未来研究的方向。
