Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:34:56.424Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reflective thinking and mental imagery: A perspective on the development of posttraumatic stress disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2005

STEPHEN M. KOSSLYN
STEPHEN M. KOSSLYN
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Reflective thinking occurs when information stored in long-term memory (LTM) is not sufficient to allow one to respond “automatically” to an object or event. Instead, stored information must be entered into working memory and a novel response or solution produced. In this article I argue that mental imagery plays a central role in this process, and that over the course of normal cognitive development the process of reflective thinking “programs” LTM so that an increasingly large number of tasks can be performed without reflective thinking. Normal cognitive development thus results in a decreasing reliance on imagery. However, if highly emotional images are formed, additional retrieval cues can be entered into LTM, making such images more likely to occur in the future. Such images induce arousal, similar to that induced by the actual event. This line of thinking leads to a novel perspective on the neurocognitive deficits that underlie the development of posttraumatic stress disorder, and may also help to explain some symptoms seen in hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and difficulties in self-control.The work summarized in this paper was supported in part by NSF ROLE Grant REC-0106760 and NIH Grant 5 R01 MH60734. Portions of this article were adapted from a draft of Kosslyn (2005). I thank the Editors and Robin Rosenberg for helpful comments on earlier drafts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 851 - 863
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baddeley, A. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Clarendon.
Bremner, J. D., Randall, P., Scott, T. M., Bronen, R. A., Seibyl, J. P., Southwick, S. M., Delaney, R. C., McCarthy, G., Charney, D. S., & Innis, R. B. (1995). MRI-based measurement of hippocampal volume in patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 152, 973–981.Google Scholar
Bremner, J. D., Randall, P., Vermetten, E., Staib, L., Bronen, R. A., Mazure, C., Capelli, S., McCarthy, G., Inis, R. B., & Charney, D. S. (1997). Magnetic resonance imaging-based measurement of hippocampal volume in posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood physical and sexual abuse: A preliminary report. Biological Psychiatry 41, 23–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. S., Olver, R. R., & Greenfield, P. M. (Eds.). (1966). Studies in cognitive growth. New York: Wiley.
Collins, A. M., & Loftus, E. F. (1975). A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review 82, 407–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crick, F., & Koch, C. (1995). Are we aware of neural activity in primary visual cortex? Nature 375, 121–123.Google Scholar
Dienes, Z., & Fahey, R. (1995). Role of specific instances in controlling a dynamic system. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition 21, 848–862.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., & Michael, T. (2004). Intrusive re-experiencing in post-traumatic stress disorder: Phenomenology, theory and therapy. Memory 12, 403–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falsetti, S. A., Monnier, J., Davis, J. L., & Resnick, H. S. (2002). Intrusive thoughts in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy 16, 127–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ganis, G., Thompson, W. L., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2004). Brain areas underlying visual imagery and visual perception: An fMRI study. Cognitive Brain Research 20, 226–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hackmann, A. Ehlers, A., Speckens, A., &Clark, D. M. (in press). Qualities and content of intrusive memories and their changes with treatment. Journal of Traumatic Stress.
Hackmann, A., & Holmes, E. A. (2004). Reflecting on imagery: A clinical perspective and overview of the special issue of Memory on mental imagery and memory in psychopathology. Memory 12, 389–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, D. C. (2000). Testing instance models of face repetition priming. Memory & Cognition 28, 192–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeannerod, M. (1994). The representing brain: Neural correlates of motor intention and imagery. Behavioral & Brain Sciences 17, 187–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeannerod, M. (1995). Mental imagery in the motor context. Neuropsychologia 33, 1419–1432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosslyn, S. M. (1976). Using imagery to retrieve semantic information: A developmental study. Child Development 47, 434–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosslyn, S. M. (1980). Image and mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kosslyn, S. M. (1994). Image and brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kosslyn, S. M. (2005). Imagining mind. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Kosslyn, S. M., Ganis, G., & Thompson, W. L. (2001). Neural foundations of imagery. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2, 635–642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosslyn, S. M., Murphy, G. L., Bemesderfer, M. E., & Feinstein, K. J. (1977). Category and continuum in mental comparisons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 106, 341–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosslyn, S. M., Thompson, W. L., & Ganis, G. (in press). The case for mental imagery. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kosslyn, S. M., Thompson, W. L., Shephard, J. M., Ganis, G., Bell, D., Danovitch, J., Wittenberg, L. A., & Alpert, N. M. (2004). Brain rCBF and performance in visual imagery tasks: Common and distinct processes. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 16, 696–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1990). Emotion, attention, and the startle reflex. Psychological Review 97, 377–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanius, R. A., Williamson, P. C., Boksman, K., Densmore, M., Gupta, M., Neufeld, R. W. J., Gati, J. S., & Menon, R. S. (2002). Brain activation during script-driven imagery induced dissociative responses in PTSD: A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation. Biological Psychiatry 52, 305–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laor, N., Wolmer, L., Wiener, Z., Weizman, R., Toren, P., & Ron, S. (1999). Image control and symptom expression in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease 187, 673–679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, D., Warach, J., & Farah, M. (1985). Two visual systems in mental imagery: Dissociation of “what” and “where” in imagery disorders due to bilateral posterior cerebral lesions. Neurology 55, 1010–1018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindberg, F. H., & Distad, L. J. (1985). Post-traumatic stress disorders in women who experienced childhood incest. Child Abuse & Neglect 9, 329–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review 95, 492–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, G. D. (1992). Shapes of reaction-time distributions and shapes of learning curves: A test of the instance theory of automaticity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition 18, 883–914.Google Scholar
Logan, G. D. (2002). An instance theory of attention and memory. Psychological Review 109, 376–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, G. D., & Etherton, J. L. (1994). What is learned during automatization? The role of attention in constructing an instance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition 20, 1022–1050.Google Scholar
McNally, R. J., Lasko, N. B., Macklin, M. L., & Pitman, R. K. (1995). Autobiographical memory disturbance in combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy 33, 619–630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orr, S. P., Metzger, L. J., & Pitman, R. K. (2002). Psychophysiology of post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 25, 271–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orr, S. P., & Pitman, R. K. (1993). Psychophysiologic assessment of attempts to simulate posttraumatic stress disorder. Biological Psychiatry 33, 127–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orr, S. P., Pitman, R. K., Lasko, N. B., & Herz, L. R. (1993). Psychophysiological assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder imagery in World War II and Korean combat veterans. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 102, 152–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1971). Mental imagery and the child. New York: Basic Books.
Prins, A., Kaloupek, D. G., & Keane, T. M. (1995). Psychophysiological evidence for autonomic arousal and startle in traumatized adult populations. In M. J. Friedman, D. S. Charney, & A. Y. Deutch (Eds.), Neurobiological and clinical consequences of stress: From normal adaptation to post-traumatic stress disorder (pp. 291–314). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott–Raven.
Rauch, S. L., van der Kolk, B. A., Fisler, R. E., & Alpert, N. M. (1996). A symptom provocation study of posttraumatic stress disorder using positron emission tomography and script-driven imagery. Archives of General Psychiatry 53, 380–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sapolsky, R. M. (1992). Stress, the aging brain, and the mechanisms of neuron death. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Segman, R. H., & Shalev, A. Y. (2003). Genetics of posttraumatic stress disorder. CNS Spectrums 8, 693–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiffrin, R. M., & Schneider, W. (1984). Automatic and controlled processing revisited. Psychological Review 91, 269–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, L. M., Orr, S. P., Carson, M. A., Rauch, S. L., Macklin, M. L., Lasko, N. B., Peters, P. M., Metzger, L. J., Dougherty, D. D., Cannistraro, P. A., Alpert, N. M., Fischman, A. J., & Pitman, R. K. (2004). Regional cerebral blood flow in the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex during traumatic imagery in male and female Vietnam veterans with PTSD. Archives of General Psychiatry 61, 168–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, E. E., & Jonides, J. (1998). Neuroimaging analyses of human working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 95, 12061–12068.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, E. E., & Jonides, J. (1999). Storage and executive processes in the frontal lobes. Science 283, 1657–1661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, L. R., & Kandel, E. R. (1999). Memory: From mind and molecules. New York: Scientific American Library/Scientific American Books.
Stutman, R. K., & Bliss, E. L. (1985). Posttraumatic stress disorder, hypnotizability, and imagery. American Journal of Psychiatry 142, 741–743.Google Scholar
Thompson, W. L., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2000). Neural systems activated during visual mental imagery: A review and meta-analyses. In A. W. Toga & J. C. Mazziotta (Eds.), Brain mapping II: The systems (pp. 535–560). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Ungerleider, L. G., & Mishkin, M. (1982). Two cortical visual systems. In D. J. Ingle, M. A. Goodale, & R. J. W. Mansfield (Eds.), Analysis of visual behavior (pp. 549–586). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Valiquette, C. M., McNamara, T. P., & Smith, K. (2003). Locomotion, incidental learning, and the selection of spatial reference systems. Memory and Cognition 31, 479–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vrana, S. R., & Lang, P. J. (1990). Fear imagery and the startle-probe reflex. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 99, 189–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yehuda, R. (2003). Adult neuroendocrine aspects of PTSD. Psychiatric Annals 33, 30–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yehuda, R., Boisoneau, D., Mason, J. W., & Giller, E. L. (1993). Glucocorticoid receptor number and cortisol excretion in mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders. Biological Psychiatry 34, 18–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yehuda, R., Giller, E. L., Jr., Levengood, R. A., Southwick, S. M., & Siever, L. J. (1995). Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal functioning in post-traumatic stress disorder: Expanding the concept of the stress response spectrum. In M. J. Friedman, D. S. Charney, & A. Y. Deutch (Eds.), Neurobiological and clinical consequences of stress: From normal adaptation to post-traumatic stress disorder (pp. 351–365). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott–Raven.
Yehuda, R., Teicher, M. H., Trestman, R. L, Levengood, R. A., & Siever, L. J. (1996). Cortisol regulation in posttraumatic stress disorder and major depression: A chronobiological analysis. Biological Psychiatry 40, 79–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar