Attention to novel and target stimuli in trauma survivors

Abstract

Trauma and its consequences can have lasting biological and cognitive effects on those who experience them. This study investigated the extent to which trauma, PTSD, and dissociation influenced attention to basic auditory stimuli in a sample of military cadets. After filling out a series of psychometric questionnaires, twenty-seven male military cadets varying in their trauma history participated in the "novelty" oddball task in which participants were asked to count high pitched tones while ignoring other auditory stimuli. EEG was continually recorded in order to assess P300 responses, an event related potential (ERP) associated with attention and memory processes. Trauma history only, and not dissociation or PTSD scores, predicted smaller P300 amplitudes to target tones. To distracting novel sounds, only trauma history and dissociation predicted unique variance in P300 amplitudes. The findings suggest that PTSD may not be central to the attentional disturbances found in traumatized samples, while trauma history and dissociation may play a more important role. Future studies investigating attentional processes post trauma should utilize dissociation scales and a non trauma sample.

Attentional bias for affective visual stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder and the role of depression

“…In view of these and the present findings attentional bias following trauma may not be as clear-cut as previously assumed but a more complex phenomenon with its components being related to different posttraumatic (comorbid) symptomatology (see also Kimble et al (2010)). Thus, after trauma exposure different components of attentional bias may contribute to the development of or become maintaining factors for qualitatively or quantitatively different posttraumatic pathologies (see also Shipherd and Salters-Pedneault (2008), Pineles et al (2007Pineles et al ( , 2009) for further discussion).…”

EEG correlates of the severity of posttraumatic stress symptoms: A systematic review of the dimensional PTSD literature

“…Likewise, another study that investigated never-treated, comorbid-free PTSD patients following the Tokyo subway sarin attack reported a negative correlation between P300 and avoidance/numbing (Araki et al, 2005). However, some oddball studies did not find significant correlations between P300 and PTSS (Kimble et al, 2010;Lamprecht et al, 2004;Neylan et al, 2003;Veltmeyer et al, 2005), which demonstrates the conflicting findings regarding the relationship between PTSS and P300 obtained using this paradigm.…”

“…Other auditory tasks, such as the auditory oddball task, though numerous, have yielded a number of dimensionally negative data regarding ERPs and PTSS severity (Ge et al, 2011;Holstein et al, 2010;Kimble et al, 2010;Lamprecht et al, 2004;Neylan et al, 2003;Veltmeyer et al, 2005). Among the auditory oddball studies, the exception was a current source analysis of the P300 component that observed a significant inverse correlation between PTSS and the P300 current source density in the posterior cingulate gyrus (Bae et al, 2011).…”

Excitatory and inhibitory conversive experiences: neurobiological features involving positive and negative conversion symptoms

“…A decrease in late event-related potentials (p300) during conversion and dissociative episodes has been found, and its reduction disappeared after recovery (Rief et al, 1998;Kimble et al, 2010). The opposite phenomenon has been objectified in individuals presenting high interoceptive awareness (Pollatos et al, 2005).…”