Speed matters: Relationship between speed of eye movements and modification of aversive autobiographical memories

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an efficacious treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. In EMDR, patients recall a distressing memory and simultaneously make eye movements (EM). Both tasks are considered to require limited working memory (WM) resources. Because this leaves fewer resources available for memory retrieval, the memory should become less vivid and less emotional during future recall. In EMDR analogue studies, a standardized procedure has been used, in which participants receive the same dual task manipulation of 1 EM cycle per second (1 Hz). From a WM perspective, the WM taxation of the dual task might be titrated to the WM taxation of the memory image.We hypothesized that highly vivid images are more affected by high WM taxation and less vivid images are more affected by lowWM taxation. In study 1, 34 participants performed a reaction time task, and rated image vividness, and difficulty of retrieving an image, during five speeds of EM and no EM. Both a highWMtaxing frequency (fast EM; 1.2 Hz) and a lowWMtaxing frequency (slow EM; 0.8 Hz) were selected. In study 2, 72 participants recalled three highly vivid aversive autobiographical memory images (nD36) or three less vivid images (nD36) under each of three conditions: recallCfast EM, recallCslow EM, or recall only. Multi-level modeling revealed a consistent pattern for all outcome measures: recallCfast EM led to less emotional, less vivid and more difficult to retrieve images than recallCslow EM and recall only, and the effects of recallCslow EM felt consistently in between the effects of recallCfast EM and recall only, but only differed significantly from recallCfast EM. Crucially, image vividness did not interact with condition on the decrease of emotionality over time, which was inconsistent with the prediction. Implications for understanding the mechanisms of action in memory modification and directions for future research are discussed.

Journal

English

Suzanne Chantal van Veen
Kevin van Schie
Leoniek D. N. V. Wijngaards-de Meij
Marianne Littel
Iris M. Engelhard
Marcel A. van den Hout

van Veen, S. C., van Schie, K., Wijngaards-de Meij, L. D., Littel, M., Engelhard, I. M., & van den Hout, M. A. (2015, April). Speed matters: Relationship between speed of eye movements and modification of aversive autobiographical memories. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 6(45), 1-9. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00045