Levy-Gigi Einat, Sudai Einav, Bar Moshe
Faculty of Education, Bar, Ilan University Ramt-Gan, Israel; The Leslie and Susan Gonda Brain Science Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
The Leslie and Susan Gonda Brain Science Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
J Anxiety Disord. 2023 Dec;100:102765. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2023.102765. Epub 2023 Sep 7.
Growing evidence links repeated traumatic exposure with impaired ability to process contextual information. Specifically, like individuals with PTSD, non-PTSD trauma-exposed individuals fail to react according to contextual demands. In the present study, we explored the process that underlies this impairment. First, we tested the ability of first responders to benefit from contextual primes to improve recognition. Second, we assessed its moderating role in the relationship between traumatic exposure and PTSD symptoms. Fifty-three active-duty firefighters and 33 unexposed civilians matched for age, gender, and years of education participated in the study. All participants completed the contextual priming paradigm, the CAPS-5 clinical interview, and the WAIS-IV vocabulary subtest and were assessed for depression and general traumatic exposure. Repeated traumatic exposure was assessed objectively using the fire-and-rescue-service tracking system. As predicted, we found that trauma-exposed individuals failed to use primes to facilitate rapid and accurate recognition of contextually related objects. Not only did contextual information not improve performance, but it achieved the opposite effect, manifested as negative priming. Hence, context appeared to be an obstacle for trauma-exposed individuals and delayed rapid and accurate recognition. Moreover, impaired ability to process contextual information predicted the tendency to develop PTSD symptoms across repeated exposure to trauma.
越来越多的证据表明，反复遭受创伤与处理情境信息的能力受损有关。具体而言，与患有创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的个体一样，暴露于创伤但未患PTSD的个体也无法根据情境需求做出反应。在本研究中，我们探究了这种损伤背后的过程。首先，我们测试了急救人员从情境启动中受益以改善识别能力的情况。其次，我们评估了其在创伤暴露与PTSD症状之间关系中的调节作用。五十三名现役消防员和33名在年龄、性别和受教育年限方面匹配的未暴露于创伤的平民参与了该研究。所有参与者都完成了情境启动范式、临床定式诊断检查（CAPS-5）访谈、韦氏成人智力量表第四版（WAIS-IV）词汇子测验，并接受了抑郁和一般创伤暴露评估。使用消防服务跟踪系统客观评估反复创伤暴露情况。正如预期的那样，我们发现暴露于创伤的个体未能利用启动来促进对情境相关物体的快速准确识别。情境信息不仅没有提高表现，反而产生了相反的效果，表现为负启动。因此，情境似乎成为了暴露于创伤个体的障碍，并延迟了快速准确的识别。此外，处理情境信息的能力受损预示了在反复暴露于创伤时出现PTSD症状的倾向。
