Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1454086

Comparing a new visuospatial intervention administered three days after a trauma film to reduce the occurrence of intrusive visual memories: A single-center randomized, controlled trial in healthy participants

Provisionally accepted
Jan-Martin Matura Jan-Martin Matura 1Henrik Kessler Henrik Kessler 1,2Emily A Holmes Emily A Holmes 3*Nina Timmesfeld Nina Timmesfeld 1Marianne C Tokic Marianne C Tokic 1Nikolai Axmacher Nikolai Axmacher 1*Simon E Blackwell Simon E Blackwell 4Anna-Christine Schmidt Anna-Christine Schmidt 1Johanna M Schweer Johanna M Schweer 1*Charlotte Hippert Charlotte Hippert 1*Lukas Apel Lukas Apel 1Jan Dieris-Hirche Jan Dieris-Hirche 1Stephan Herpertz Stephan Herpertz 1Aram Kehyayan Aram Kehyayan 1*
  • 1 Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
  • 2 University of Marburg, Marburg, Hesse, Germany
  • 3 Uppsala University, Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden
  • 4 University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Intrusive memories occur frequently after potentially traumatic events and form a core symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) if they persist. The translational approach of visuospatial interventions tries to target those intrusive memories in order to reduce their frequency predominantly using an intervention including as one component the computer game Tetris. Despite promising results, the application of Tetris has critical drawbacks, e.g., potential commercial or copyright issues. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether it is this specific game or, as predicted by theory, a visuospatial task per se that leads to the effect. This study hence aims to compare the effect of Tetris with an alternative, bespoke visuospatial task:Mobilum developed for the current purpose.Methods: N=120 healthy participants watched a trauma film and recorded their intrusive memories in a diary for 6 days. Three days after watching the film, they were randomized to 3 groups and after memory reactivation cue received either Tetris or Mobilum or Control (no task). Prior to intervention 8 participants reported zero intrusive memories to the film and were excluded from further analyses, therefore 112 participants were included in the analysis.Results: A mixed Poisson regression model revealed that the Mobilum group had significantly less frequent intrusive memories after the intervention compared to the control condition (approximately 43%, p=0.0013). There was no significant difference for the Tetris group compared to Control (17 % less frequent, p=0.3798). Discussion: Our results suggest that visuospatial tasks other than Tetrisin this case, Mobilum can also lead to a reduction in intrusive memories when administered 3 days after a trauma film. This strengthens the assumption that it is not specifically the game Tetris, but rather the visuospatial nature of the task, that is responsible for the reduction. Aspects of further investigating the potential of Mobilum as well as clinical implications are discussed.

    Keywords: visuospatial task, Intrusive memories, posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD, Mobilum, Tetris

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 26 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Matura, Kessler, Holmes, Timmesfeld, Tokic, Axmacher, Blackwell, Schmidt, Schweer, Hippert, Apel, Dieris-Hirche, Herpertz and Kehyayan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Emily A Holmes, Uppsala University, Uppsala, 753 12, Uppsala, Sweden
    Nikolai Axmacher, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
    Johanna M Schweer, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
    Charlotte Hippert, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
    Aram Kehyayan, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.