Mind meets body: On the nature of recovered memories of trauma

Author(s): Kristiansen, C. M.

Journal/Book: Women Ther. 1996; 19: 10 Alice St, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580. Haworth Press Inc. 31-45.

Abstract: There is compelling evidence that memory is multimodal, with an explicit information processing system of which we are consciously aware, and a parallel, implicit somatosensory system that operates without our awareness. Trauma causes alterations in the production and release of stress-responsive neurochemicals such as norepinephrine and the endogenous opioids, and extreme levels of these neurochemicals disrupt everyday, explicit information processing. The implicit processing system, however, continues to function in the face of trauma and studies of the neurobiological responses to trauma reveal that recovered memories of trauma are best understood as implicit, nonconscious, affective and sensorimotor memories. During trauma somatosensory information bypasses integrative higher-order cortical processing, thereby limiting memory to the fragmented affective and sensorimotor memories of the implicit memory system. Further, during memory retrieval the kindling of initially weak memories is hypothesized to cause an accelerating positive feedback loop in which arousal triggers memories, and these memories trigger further arousal. The implications of the neurobiological processes underlying trauma for efforts to retrieve traumatic memories, and therapy more generally are discussed.

Note: Article Hovdestad WE, Carleton Univ, Dept Psychol, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, CANADA

Keyword(s): POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER; INDUCED ANALGESIA; IMPLICIT; AMNESIA; EMOTION; ABUSE; BRAIN

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