VA Northern California Health Care System.
Neuropsychology. 2024 Sep;38(6):516-530. doi: 10.1037/neu0000964. Epub 2024 Jul 18.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked to deficits in executive functioning, but the literature suggests these associations are inconsistent. Results vary depending on the task used, test modality, and the specific subdomain being measured, such as inhibitory control (interference resolution, response inhibition) or set shifting (task switching, rule switching). Notably, deficits are more consistently observed in computerized tasks that measure precise reaction times (RTs) than in classic paper-and-pencil measures, but few studies have parsed specific executive functioning deficits in PTSD using detailed analyses of RT data.
The present study used a cued-switching Stroop Task to examine both interference resolution and task switching in 28 veterans with PTSD and 28 age-matched controls. Each trial required attending to a randomly presented cue and responding to the specified target while ignoring irrelevant or opposing information. Analyses of RT distributions estimated both Gaussian (normal) and ex-Gaussian (exponential) parameters.
Veterans with PTSD had slower and more variable RTs than the controls on trials that required ignoring conflicting information (interference resolution, ' = .68). These effects were confined to the normal distribution, not to excessively slow responses (as estimated by ex-Gaussian parameters). Veterans with PTSD also showed modestly slower RTs on trials that required switching between cues, but Bayesian evidence for this was weak, and measures by ex-Gaussian parameters were not significant.
These results highlight the importance of examining executive functioning in PTSD with a more nuanced approach, as clarity around these deficits may have important implications for future intervention and rehabilitation strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）与执行功能缺陷有关，但文献表明这些关联并不一致。研究结果因所使用的任务、测试模式以及所测量的特定子领域而异，例如抑制控制（干扰解决、反应抑制）或定势转移（任务转换、规则转换）。值得注意的是，在测量精确反应时（RT）的计算机化任务中，缺陷更为明显，而在经典的纸笔测试中则不明显，但很少有研究使用 RT 数据的详细分析来解析 PTSD 中的特定执行功能缺陷。
本研究使用线索切换 Stroop 任务，在 28 名 PTSD 退伍军人和 28 名年龄匹配的对照组中，同时检查干扰解决和任务转换。每次试验都需要注意随机呈现的线索，并对指定的目标做出反应，同时忽略无关或对立的信息。对 RT 分布的分析估计了高斯（正态）和超指数（指数）参数。
与对照组相比，需要忽略冲突信息的试验中，PTSD 退伍军人的 RT 更慢且更可变（干扰解决， =.68）。这些影响仅限于正态分布，而不是异常缓慢的反应（如超指数参数估计）。需要在线索之间转换的试验中，PTSD 退伍军人的 RT 也稍慢，但贝叶斯证据较弱，超指数参数的测量结果也不显著。
这些结果强调了用更细致的方法检查 PTSD 中的执行功能的重要性，因为这些缺陷的明确性可能对未来的干预和康复策略有重要影响。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2024 APA，保留所有权利）。
