News Suppressing Unwanted Memories Reduces Their Unconscious Influence On Behavior

[MyPTSD]

Researchers have shown that, contrary to what was previously assumed, suppressing unwanted memories reduces their unconscious influences on subsequent behavior, and have shed light on how this process happens in the brain.

[DLMURL="http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/ptsd/~3/vNZXqTQHAI0/140318093910.htm"]Continue reading...[/DLMURL]

 

[Pietro]

This study created memories by non-traumatic means. I believe there is evidence that memories created during, and suppressed due to, trauma are formed and/or stored differently than other memories. Trauma memories are often not fully processed. For non-traumatic memories, or memories that have been processed, it seems reasonable that such memories can be de-prioritized over time. Memories caused by trauma don't seem to fit that pattern.

Another issue in the study is that they used an artificial means of mimicking memory suppression by distorting the visual display of the objects. I'm curious at how they arrived at the conclusion that visually obscuring an object is the same as suppressing a memory, other than the very abstract relationship the two concepts have.

IMHO (or, perhaps, not so humble ;) ), I think these researchers need to spend a little more time and care on how they craft their studies, in order to produce credible and reproducible results, instead of claiming that an experiment done without anyone having memories created by trauma should be used to judge those who have memories created by trauma. This is bad science.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

It's easy to take findings such as this out of context. This article is NOT the actual scientific article produced as a result of research, rather an article written based on the scientific article (read: this is where oversimplification can be introduced). I think that it would be easy for someone new to PTSD to read it and blame themselves for not being able to repress their memories and thus self blame is introduced for not being able to "get over it". I think it's important to realize that studies like this have no practical implications on the treatment of PTSD right now. This study is merely one step along the path to better treatment, and it may take 5, 10, 15 or even more such studies before there is a true breakthrough in PTSD treatment that can be applied in the real world.