Emotional Stroop interference in trauma-exposed individuals: A contrast between two accounts

An investigation of the mechanisms underlying the link between abstract reasoning and intrusive memories: A trauma analogue study

Potentially traumatic events elicit intrusive memories to which some individuals are more vulnerable than others. Lower abstract reasoning capacity has been related to more intrusive memories. A more perceptual processing style when encoding the event may mediate this link. Another potential mechanism is lower attentional control, resulting in greater attentional bias toward trauma-related content. We examined both of these possibilities using a trauma-analogue paradigm. One hundred and twenty participants completed abstract reasoning tasks. Then, 90 participants watched a negative video, and 30 participants watched a neutral video. The level of perceptual processing (P1) and attentional bias (RT) towards trauma-related stimuli were measured with a pictorial Stroop task while recording EEG. Intrusive memories were recorded for 5 days. Abstract reasoning was not associated with intrusive memories. However, lower abstract reasoning tended to be associated with more perceptual processing (greater P1 amplitude) following the negative video. More perceptual processing also tended to be related to more intrusive memories for younger participants. A more pronounced attentional bias was related to more intrusive memories, but only for women. Unexpectedly, also for women, better verbal reasoning was linked to a more pronounced attentional bias. Results are compared to existing studies and future implications are discussed.

The association between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and executive functioning

Introduction: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition characterised by several disturbances in an individual's executive functioning. We were interested in the link between executive functions and the presence of anxiety and depression in a clinical population with post-traumatic stress disorder.Methods: Our sample comprised 180 participants divided into three groups: 60 with PTSD, 60 trauma-exposed without PTSD, and 60 controls. All participants were assessed on the following dimensions: PTSD, dissociation, executive functions, anxiety, and depression.Results: Consistent with the literature, the results of our study suggest that individuals with PTSD have difficulties in executive functioning. These disturbances are related to levels of anxiety and depression.Conclusion: The severity of PTSD is positively correlated with executive function disturbances, but the observed disturbances, especially in working memory updating, can be explained mainly by the high level of depression, rather than by PTSD alone.

Emotion regulation and executive functioning in female victims of sexual assault suffering from PTSD

The sexual abuse of women has major repercussions on several spheres of the victims' daily lives and can lead to the development of PTSD. We were interested in the existence of a specific profile of alterations in cognitive functioning in female victims of sexual violence with PTSD. A sample of 101 women was divided into three groups (44 sexually abused women with PTSD; 25 sexually abused women without PTSD; 32 non-sexually abused non-PTSD controls). Participants completed questionnaires about psycho-traumatic symptoms, emotion regulation and executive functions. The results show that the PTSD group uses more maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. In addition, overall executive functions were poorer in the PTSD group. Moreover, sexual assault, exposed with or without PTSD, is associated with deficits in executive functions, particularly inhibition. We also found positive correlations between executive difficulties and the use of non-adaptive emotion regulation strategies. These results suggest that there may be individual differences in the alterations in cognitive functioning following sexual assault.

Alteration of early attentional processing after analogue trauma exposure: evidence from event-related potentials

The present study aimed to determine whether exposure to an analogue traumatic event affects attentional processing of emotional information. Two groups of non-clinical participants matched on anxiety level, depression symptoms and stressful life events viewed either a trauma or a neutral film. They then performed an emotional Stroop task during which both continuous electroencephalographic activity was recorded and intrusive memories were measured. Results revealed that the valence effect (measured by the difference between emotional and neutral conditions) for the P1 amplitude was significantly greater in participants who viewed the trauma film than in participants who viewed the neutral film. This interaction was specific to words semantically related to the analogue trauma event and did not extend to all negative words. Further analyses revealed a relationship between intrusions frequency, P1 amplitude and emotional Stroop interference, indicating a link between attention and intrusive memories. Our findings suggest that exposure to potentially traumatic events has an important impact on neurocognitive function, even in the absence of psychopathology, and that this impact occurs at an early, possibly automatic stage of processing.

Perceptual processing of stimuli related to an analogue traumatic event: An ERP study

Previous research has suggested that exposure to potentially traumatic events can lead to increased perceptual processing specific to trauma-related stimuli. Moreover, conceptual processing strategies during encoding may reduce the effect of trauma exposure on perceptual processing. The current study investigated the effect of a trauma film on perceptual processing with visual evoked potentials. Participants were primed with perceptual or conceptual processing strategies, then viewed a trauma film and a control film. Participants then looked at emotionally negative and neutral images that were related or unrelated to the films. The amplitude of the P1 evoked potential was measured during image presentation. P1 amplitude was more positive specifically for negative film-related stimuli. Moreover, this effect was stronger in participants primed with perceptual processing. These results suggest that potentially traumatic events increase perceptual processing specifically for trauma-related stimuli, and that conceptual encoding strategies attenuate the effect of exposure to potentially traumatic events on perception.

Association between olfactory function and inhibition of emotional competing distractors in major depressive disorder

We aimed to investigate the changes of olfaction of major depressive disorder (MDD) before and after medical treatment, and to preliminarily scrutinize the association between the olfactory function and the severity of depressive symptoms, response inhibition, and emotional responding. Forty-eight medicine-naïve MDD patients plus 33 healthy controls (HC) matched on gender, ages, and level of education, were recruited in the test group. The Chinese Smell Identification Test (CSIT), Self-reported Olfactory Scale (SROS), 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA), and mean reaction time/accuracy rate (ΔMRT) of emotional Stroop test were measured. The patients were assessed before the treatment (baseline) and 3 months after the treatment (follow-up). The data at the baseline level were measured then associated using multiple linear regression stepwise analysis. The MDD patients had lower scores of the CSIT and SROS and longer ΔMRT at baseline level compared to HC while the ΔMRT of MDD patients remained longer after 3-month treatment (p’s < 0.05). At the baseline level, the regression equation including age and ΔMRT of negative word-color congruent (NEG-C), was finally observed as follows: y(CSIT) = 10.676–0.063 × 1–0.002 × 2, [x₁ = the age(y), x₂ = the NEG-C (ms)]. The olfactory function of MDD appears to be correlated negatively with the age and the ΔMRT of negative stimuli before treatment. After the remission of MDD, the olfactory dysfunction was improved, which might be regarded as a responding phenotype of brain function of MDD rather than the emotional responding.

The Emotional Stroop Effect Is Modulated by the Biological Salience and Motivational Intensity Inherent in Stimuli

Prior research has found significant emotional Stroop effects for negative stimuli, but the results have been inconsistent for positive stimuli. Combining an evolutionary perspective of emotion with the motivational dimensional model of affect, we speculated that the emotional Stroop effect of a stimulus may be influenced by the biological salience and inherent motivational intensity of the stimulus. In the present study, we examined this issue with two experiments. The results indicated that both low- and high-withdrawal-motivation negative stimuli produced a robust emotional Stroop effect; however, the high-withdrawal-motivation negative stimuli produced a stronger emotional Stroop effect than the low-withdrawal-motivation negative stimuli. Regarding positive stimuli, only the high-approach-motivated positive stimuli produced the emotional Stroop effect, unlike the low-approach-motivation positive stimuli. These findings suggest that the emotional Stroop effect is modulated by the biological salience of stimuli and by the motivational intensity inherent in the stimuli. Biological salience and motivational intensity play an additive effect in the emotional Stroop effect.

Is it dangerous? The role of an emotional visual search strategy and threat-relevant training in the detection of guns and knives

Counter-terrorism strategies rely on the assumption that it is possible to increase threat detection by providing explicit verbal instructions to orient people's attention to dangerous objects and hostile behaviours in their environment. Nevertheless, whether verbal cues can be used to enhance threat detection performance under laboratory conditions is currently unclear. In Experiment 1, student participants were required to detect a picture of a dangerous or neutral object embedded within a visual search display on the basis of an emotional strategy 'is it dangerous?' or a semantic strategy 'is it an object?'. The results showed a threat superiority effect that was enhanced by the emotional visual search strategy. In Experiment 2, whilst trainee police officers displayed a greater threat superiority effect than student controls, both groups benefitted from performing the task under the emotional than semantic visual search strategy. Manipulating situational threat levels (high vs. low) in the experimental instructions had no effect on visual search performance. The current findings provide new support for the language-as-context hypothesis. They are also consistent with a dual-processing account of threat detection involving a verbally mediated route in working memory and the deployment of a visual template developed as a function of training.

Attentional biases and trauma status: Do psychotic-like experiences matter?

OBJECTIVE

In a large undergraduate sample, we explored whether attentional biases were similar between individuals reporting positive psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) with a history of traumatic life events (TLEs) compared with individuals with a TLE history alone.

METHOD

Participants completed the Emotional Stroop Task, and self-report questionnaires of TLEs and PLEs.

RESULTS

Although reaction time (RT) to physical, sexual, emotional, and overall trauma words was associated with TLEs, only RT to physical abuse and overall trauma words remained significantly associated with TLE status after controlling for age, race, and neutral word RT. Contrary to our hypotheses, PLEs were not associated with RT to TLE words and there were no significant interactions between TLE history and PLEs on RT to TLE-salient stimuli.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that psychosis risk alone does not appear to exacerbate attentional biases and that TLE history may exert similar influence on attention regardless of psychosis risk. In conclusion, phenotypes associated with TLEs may be similar in populations potentially at risk for psychosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Can threat detection be enhanced using processing strategies by police trainees and officers?

The ability to detect threatening stimuli is an important skill for police officers. No research has yet examined whether implementing different information processing strategies can improve threat detection in police officers and police trainees. The first aim of our study was to compare the effect of strategies accentuating the processing of the emotional or the semantic dimension of stimuli on attention towards threatening and neutral information. The second aim was to consider the impact of PTSD symptoms on threat detection, as a function of processing strategies, in police officers and trainees. In a cueing paradigm, participants had to respond to a target that was presented following a threatening or neutral cue. Participants then answered a question, known beforehand, concerning the cue. The question was used to induce a more emotional or semantic processing strategy. Results showed that when the processing strategy was emotional, police trainees and officers were faster to detect the target when it followed a threatening cue, compared to a neutral cue, independently of its spatial location. This was not the case when the processing strategy was semantic. This study shows that induced processing strategies can influence attentional mechanisms related to threat detection in police trainees and police officers.

Sexual Abuse Exposure Alters Early Processing of Emotional Words: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

This study aimed to compare the time course of emotional information processing between trauma-exposed and control participants, using electrophysiological measures. We conceived an emotional Stroop task with two types of words: trauma-related emotional words and neutral words. We assessed the evoked cerebral responses of sexual abuse victims without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and no abuse participants. We focused particularly on an early wave (C1/P1), the N2pc, and the P3b. Our main result indicated an early effect (55–165 ms) of emotionality, which varied between non-exposed participants and sexual abuse victims. This suggests that potentially traumatic experiences modulate early processing of emotional information. Our findings showing neurobiological alterations in sexual abuse victims (without PTSD) suggest that exposure to highly emotional events has an important impact on neurocognitive function even in the absence of psychopathology.

Trauma and the psychosis spectrum: A review of symptom specificity and explanatory mechanisms

Traumatic life events have been robustly associated with various psychosis outcomes, including increased risk of psychotic disorders, the prodrome of psychosis, and dimensional measures of psychotic symptoms, such as attenuated positive psychotic symptoms. However, trauma exposure has been linked to various mental disorders; therefore, the specificity of trauma exposure to psychosis remains unclear. This review focuses on two understudied areas of the trauma and psychosis literature: 1) the specificity between trauma and psychosis in relation to other disorders that often result post-trauma, and 2) proposed mechanisms that uniquely link trauma to psychosis. We begin by discussing the underlying connection between trauma exposure and the entire psychosis spectrum with a focus on the influence of trauma type and specific psychotic symptoms. We then consider how the principles of multifinality and equifinality can be useful in elucidating the trauma-psychosis relationship versus the trauma-other disorder relationship. Next, we discuss several cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms that might uniquely account for the association between trauma and psychosis, as well as the role of gender. Lastly, we review important methodological issues that complicate the research on trauma and psychosis, ending with clinical implications for the field.