title: Aftermath of 3/11: earthquakes and involuntary attentional orienting to sudden ambient sounds.
abstract: Due to the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011 and the following long-term earthquake swarm, many people living in the earthquake-affected areas have developed mental stress, even though clinically-diagnosable symptoms may not be apparent. Concurrently, many unusual reports have emerged in which persons complain of abnormally increased sensitivity to sudden ambient sounds during their daily lives (e.g., the sound of the washing machine on spin cycle). By recording event-related potentials to various sudden ambient sounds from young adults living in the affected areas, we found that the level of earthquake-induced mental stress, as indexed by the hyperarousal symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, was positively related to the magnitude of P3a to sudden ambient sounds. These results reveal a strong relationship between mental stress and enhanced involuntary attentional orienting in a large majority of trauma-exposed people without diagnosable symptoms.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan. Electronic address: m.kimura@aist.go.jp.
authors.forename: Motohiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: Mari
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Fumie
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.forename: Jun'ichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Katayama
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology*; D055866:Earthquakes; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013016:Sound / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ambient sound; Earthquake; Involuntary attentional orienting; Mental stress; P3a