A model of autobiographical memory & its changes in PTSD

描述(由申请人提供)：拥有自传体记忆需要整合几个神经/行为系统，包括视觉意象、听觉意象、多模式空间意象、情感、叙事推理和执行搜索。当它们一起工作时，这些系统会产生一种整合的、与背景相适应的回忆，并伴随着一种不压倒一切的重温感觉。在创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)中，这种融合失败了，这是一种影响大约8%成年人口的综合征。自愿的记忆，尤其是对创伤的记忆，往往更加零散。不由自主的记忆经常令人烦恼，伴随着压倒性的感官意象、情感和重温。这项研究首次尝试量化理论动机系统在有无创伤后应激障碍的人提取自传体记忆时的相对活跃性和相互关系，从而为更好地理解自传体记忆和创伤后应激障碍提供了可能性。我们将要求a)越战时期的退伍军人，b)年龄匹配的非退伍军人，以及c)有和没有创伤后应激障碍症状的本科生，在他们有自传式记忆的同时报告这些系统。为了理解自传体记忆的基本操作，我们将对以下记忆进行比较：创伤后应激障碍发作前后的记忆，创伤性记忆与非创伤性记忆，积极记忆与消极记忆，以及自愿记忆与非自愿记忆。这项分析涉及个人内部的相关性，以测试认知理论，以及个人之间的相关性，以稳定测量认知风格、情绪、个性和共病障碍。我们的设计允许在同一数据集中集成两种类型的分析这一不同寻常的步骤。为了试图理解叙事推理的变化，我们将考察创伤事件是否成为人们生活叙事的中心，以及它是否影响了他们对总体生活过程的预期。为了试图理解情绪系统，我们将看看关于内脏情绪反应的报告是否比更多关于情绪强度的认知报告更好地预测其他因素。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Having an autobiographical memory requires the integration of several neural/behavioral systems, including visual imagery, auditory imagery, multi-modal spatial imagery, emotions, narrative reasoning, and executive search. When they work together, these systems produce an integrated, context-appropriate recollection that comes with a sense of reliving that is not overpowering. In posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a syndrome which affects approximately 8 percent of the adult population, this integration fails. Voluntary memories, especially of trauma, tend to be more fragmented. Involuntary memories are often troubling, coming with overpowering sensory imagery, emotions, and reliving. The proposed research is the first attempt to quantify the relative activity and interrelations of theoretically motivated systems when an autobiographical memory is retrieved by people with and without PTSD, thus offering the potential for a better understanding of both autobiographical memory and PTSD. We will ask a) Vietnam-era combat veterans, b) age-matched non-veterans, and c) undergraduates with and without PTSD symptoms to report on these systems while they are having an autobiographical memory. To understand the basic operations of autobiographical memory, comparisons will be for memories: from before and after the onset of PTSD, for traumatic vs. non-traumatic memories, for positive vs. negative memories, and for voluntary vs. involuntary memories. The analysis involves correlations done within individuals to test cognitive theories and between individuals to allow stable measures of cognitive style, mood, personality, and comorbid disorders. Our design allows the unusual step of integrating both types of analysis in the same data set. To try to understand changes in narrative reasoning, we will examine whether the traumatic event becomes central in people's life narrative and whether it affects their expectations of the life course in general. To try to understand the emotional system we will see whether reports of visceral emotional reactions are better predictors of other factors than are more cognitive reports of emotional intensity.