People may wish to forget traumatic memories, but counterintuitively, they may benefit from recalling them under certain conditions-those which render them less intrusive. It is time to profit from advances in the science of memory to devise innovative psychological treatments ( Holmes, Craske, & Graybiel, 2014). Procedures that could alter a consolidated trauma memory are critical for reducing posttraumatic symptoms. Disaster-response aid can be mobilized 24 to 48 hr after an event ( American Red Cross, 2010), but within the first 6 hr, emotional memories are already consolidated and change resistant ( McGaugh, 2000). Ways to modulate the persistence of intrusive memories are little understood.Įffective mental-health interventions soon after trauma are lacking ( Roberts, Kitchiner, Kenardy, & Bisson, 2010). Intrusive memories are a hallmark of acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD APA, 2013), but understanding emotional and intrusive memory has broader relevance beyond trauma-involuntary images of various emotional autobiographical events are common in daily life ( Bernsten, 2010). Some will develop “recurrent, involuntary and intrusive distressing memories of the traumatic event(s)” ( Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed., or DSM–5 American Psychiatric Association, or APA, 2013, p.
Most people will experience a traumatic event during their life. Psychological trauma is prevalent around the world ( World Health Organization, 2013), from terrorist attacks to motor vehicle accidents. A simple, noninvasive cognitive-task procedure administered after emotional memory has already consolidated (i.e., > 24 hours after exposure to experimental trauma) may prevent the recurrence of intrusive memories of those emotional events. Furthermore, both memory reactivation and playing Tetris were required to reduce subsequent intrusions (Experiment 2), consistent with reconsolidation-update mechanisms. We showed that intrusive memories were virtually abolished by playing the computer game Tetris following a memory-reactivation task 24 hr after initial exposure to experimental trauma. We predicted that reconsolidation of a reactivated visual memory of experimental trauma could be disrupted by engaging in a visuospatial task that would compete for visual working memory resources. We investigated whether reconsolidation-the process during which memories become malleable when recalled-can be blocked using a cognitive task and whether such an approach can reduce these unbidden intrusions. Intrusive memories can then flash back repeatedly into the mind’s eye and cause distress. Memory of a traumatic event becomes consolidated within hours.
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