Memory reconsolidation in trauma-like memory

Individuals might meet difficulties in updating and integrating traumatic memories with existing autobiographical memories, which could lead to posttraumatic stress disorder. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy putatively facilitates adaptive memory updating and integration. While eye movement is critical to the therapeutic benefit of EMDR, their mechanism of action remains unclear. We applied video trauma memory with counterconditioning to test the effect of eye movement in EMDR directly. We also explored the importance of internet-based interventions and culture differences in updating trauma-like memories. In experiment 1, we recruited 69 undergraduates from the University of Birmingham. Participants were exposed to distressing film clips and counterconditioning took place a day later. Subjective distress was recorded daily for one week, and declarative memory for the trauma video was also tested on the final day. In experiment 2, we recruited 35 healthy participants from the Southwest University in China and 24 healthy participants from the University of Birmingham; 26 participants completed their experiments in person, and 33 participants completed their experiments online. The experimental procedures were the same as the ones in experiment 1. The results in experiment 1 indicated that eye movement combined with counterconditioning had the lowest IES-R scores among all the groups, but these results were not repeated in declarative memory tasks. In experiment 2, we replicated the effect (eye movement + war + humour) in different cultures and types. However, we only compared the difference between fully memory reconsolidation condition (eye movement + counterconditioning) and control group. Therefore, we were unable to conclude that eye movement can enhance memory reconsolidation, but counterconditioning might play an important role in memory reconsolidation which is a universal phenomenon