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Abstract
This study investigated event-related potential (ERP) indices of information processing
in sufferers of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ERPs were obtained from 18 PTSD
patients and 20 controls while they performed a target discrimination task requiring
the detection of infrequent target tones from a background sequence of frequent and
infrequent distractor tones. A delayed N2 and an attenuated P3 that failed to differentiate
target from distractor tones indicated that patients had abnormal difficulty distinguishing
task stimuli of differing relevance. It is proposed that this difficulty is reflected
behaviorally in the slowed reaction time by patients to target stimuli and may underlie
the disturbed concentration and memory impairments found in PTSD. It may also be related
to dysfunction in central noradrenaline function, which has been shown to be both
crucial in selective attention and abnormal in PTSD.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Received in revised form:
May 13,
1993
Received:
November 16,
1992
Identification
Copyright
© 1993 Published by Elsevier Inc.