Université Laval, Pavillon Félix-Antoine-Savard Local 1144, Québec, Canada.
CERVO Brain Research Center, Québec, Canada.
Mem Cognit. 2024 Oct;52(7):1597-1608. doi: 10.3758/s13421-024-01565-0. Epub 2024 May 1.
How do we remember traumatic events, and are these memories different in individuals who experience post-traumatic stress? Some evidence suggests that traumatic events are mnemonically enhanced, or include more episodic detail, relative to other types of memories. Simultaneously, individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have more non-episodic details in all of their memories, a pattern hypothesized to result from impairment in executive function. Here, we explore these questions in a unique population that experienced severely traumatic events more than 20 years ago - individuals who lived through the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Participants recalled events from the genocide, negative events unrelated to the genocide, neutral events, and positive events. We used the Autobiographical Interview method to label memory details as episodic or non-episodic. We found that memories from the genocide showed robust mnemonic enhancement, with more episodic than non-episodic details, and contained more details overall than any other memory type. This pattern was not impacted by post-traumatic stress. Overall, this study provides evidence that traumatic events create vivid long-lasting episodic memories, in this case even more than 20 years later.
我们如何记住创伤性事件，而经历创伤后应激的个体的这些记忆是否不同？一些证据表明，与其他类型的记忆相比，创伤性事件在记忆上得到了增强，或者包含更多的情景细节。同时，创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）患者在所有记忆中都有更多的非情景细节，这种模式被假设是由于执行功能受损所致。在这里，我们在一个独特的群体中探讨了这些问题，这些人在 20 多年前经历了极其严重的创伤性事件——他们经历了 1994 年卢旺达种族灭绝。参与者回忆了种族灭绝事件、与种族灭绝无关的负面事件、中性事件和积极事件。我们使用自传式访谈方法将记忆细节标记为情景或非情景。我们发现，种族灭绝的记忆表现出强烈的记忆增强，情景细节多于非情景细节，并且包含的细节总体上比任何其他记忆类型都多。这种模式不受创伤后应激的影响。总的来说，这项研究提供了证据表明，创伤性事件会产生生动的、持久的情景记忆，在这种情况下，即使是 20 多年后也是如此。
