Enhanced priming for trauma-related material in posttraumatic stress disorder.
Intrusive reexperiencing in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked to perceptual priming for trauma-related material. A prospective longitudinal study (N = 69) investigated perceptual priming for trauma-related, general threat, and neutral words in assault survivors with and without PTSD, using a new version of the word-stem completion task. Survivors with PTSD showed enhanced priming for trauma-related words. Furthermore, priming for trauma-related words measured soon after the trauma was associated with subsequent PTSD severity at 3, 6, and 9 months. The enhanced priming effect was specific to trauma-related words. Enhanced perceptual priming for traumatic material appears to be one of the cognitive processes operating in PTSD.
Michael
Tanja
T
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, England.
Ehlers
Anke
A
Halligan
Sarah L
SL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D012660:Semantics; D012718:Set, Psychology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology