Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2020 Feb 3;15(2):e0228416. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228416. eCollection 2020.
Intrusive memories are a core symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A growing body of analogue studies using trauma films suggest that carrying out specific demanding tasks (e.g., playing the video game Tetris, pattern tapping) after the analogue trauma can reduce intrusive memories. To examine the mechanism behind this effect, we tested whether mere engagement with attention-grabbing and interesting visual stimuli disrupts intrusive memories, and whether this depends on working memory resources and/or the concurrent activation of trauma film memories. In a total sample of 234 healthy participants, we compared no-task control conditions to a perceptual rating task with visually arresting video clips (i.e., non-emotional, complex, moving displays), to a less arresting task with non-moving, blurred pictures (Study 1), and to more demanding imagery tasks with and without repetitive reminders of the trauma film (Study 2). Generally, we found moderate to strong evidence that none of the conditions lead to differences in intrusion frequency. Moreover, our data suggest that intrusive memories were neither related to individual differences in working memory capacity (i.e., operation span performance; Study 1), nor to the degree of engagement with a visuospatial task (i.e., one-week recognition performance; Study 2). Taken together, our findings suggest that the boundary conditions for successful interference with traumatic intrusions may be more complex and subtle than assumed. Future studies may want to test the role of prediction errors during (re-)consolidation, deliberate efforts to suppress thoughts, or the compatibility of the task demands with the individual's skills.
侵入性记忆是创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的核心症状。越来越多的使用创伤影片的模拟研究表明，在模拟创伤后进行特定的高要求任务（例如，玩视频游戏俄罗斯方块、模式敲击）可以减少侵入性记忆。为了检验这种效果背后的机制，我们测试了仅仅参与引人注目的有趣视觉刺激是否会干扰侵入性记忆，以及这种干扰是否取决于工作记忆资源和/或创伤影片记忆的并发激活。在一个共有 234 名健康参与者的总样本中，我们将无任务对照条件与具有视觉吸引力的视频剪辑的感知评定任务（即非情感性、复杂、移动的显示）、与非移动、模糊的图片的吸引力较小的任务（研究 1）以及具有和不具有创伤影片重复提醒的更具挑战性的意象任务进行了比较（研究 2）。总的来说，我们有中等至强的证据表明，没有一种条件会导致侵入频率的差异。此外，我们的数据表明，侵入性记忆既与工作记忆容量的个体差异无关（即操作跨度表现；研究 1），也与对视觉空间任务的参与程度无关（即一周的识别表现；研究 2）。总之，我们的研究结果表明，成功干扰创伤性侵入的边界条件可能比假设的更复杂和微妙。未来的研究可能希望测试（重新）巩固过程中的预测误差、刻意努力抑制思想，或任务需求与个体技能的兼容性的作用。
