IMPLICIT MEMORY BIAS FOR THREAT IN POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER

We employed a noise judgment task to investigate implicit memory bias for threat in Vietnam veterans with and without posttraumatic stress d isorder (PTSD). Subjects first heard neutral (e.g, ''THE SHINYAPPLE SA T ON THE TABLE) and combat-relevant (e.g, ''THE CHOPPER LANDED IN HOT LZ'') sentences. Implicit memory for these sentences was tested by hav ing subjects rare the volume of noise accompanying the presentation of these ''old'' sentences intermixed with ''new'' sentences, Implicit m emory for old sentences is revealed when subjects rate the noise accom panying old sentences as less loud than the noise accompanying new sen tences. Results revealed that under high noise volume PTSD patients de monstrated an implicit memory bias for combat-relevant sentences, wher eas control subjects did not. This differential priming effect suggest s that information about threat may be automatically accessed in PTSD.