Binding Temporal Context in Memory: Impact of Emotional Arousal as a Function of State Anxiety and State Dissociation. Issue 7 (July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huntjens, Rafaële J.C.; Wessel, Ineke; Postma, Albert; van Wees-Cieraad, Rineke; de Jong, Peter J.
• Is Part Of: Journal of nervous and mental disease. Volume 203:Issue 7(2015:Jul.)
• Publication Date: 2015-07
• Subjects: Context memory -- binding -- emotional arousal -- dissociation; Neurology -- Periodicals; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Neurology; Psychiatry; Neurologie; Psychiatrie; Neurology; Psychiatry; Periodicals; 616.8005
• DOI: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000325
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3018

Abstract

Abstract : Abstract: Encoding of stressful experiences plays an important role in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder. A crucial aspect of memory encoding is binding: the "gluing" of the temporal and spatial elements of an episode into a cohesive unit. This study investigated the effect of emotional arousal on temporal binding and examined whether temporal binding varied as a function of state anxiety and/or state dissociation. Participants saw picture sequences that varied in arousal and valence. After each sequence, participants were presented with all the pictures simultaneously and had to sort the pictures in the original order. Temporal context binding was indexed by sorting accuracy. Binding was generally lower for high than low arousing pictures. Reduced binding of arousing material was specifically pronounced in participants with high state anxiety, whereas it seemed independent of state dissociation. These findings point to the relevance of impaired temporal binding as a component of aberrant memory encoding in stressful situations.