Enhanced priming for trauma-related material in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal article

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.

Authors: Michael, T; Ehlers, A; Halligan, S

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 103-112
• Publication date: 2005-03-01
• DOI: 10.1037/1528-3542.5.1.103
• EISSN: 1931-1516
• ISSN: 1528-3542
• Language: English
• Keywords: Aged; Semantics; Survivors; Emotions; Set (Psychology); Arousal; Cues; Humans; Adult; Adolescent; Attention; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Paired-Associate Learning; Mental Recall; Violence; Middle Aged; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Male