Capturing Daily Lived Experiences of Trauma Memories to Understand How Trauma Is Represented in the Brain

Abstract
Trauma-related intrusive memories are common among survivors of trauma and are leading predictors of the onset, maintenance, and severity of adverse psychological outcomes following a traumatic event. Given their centrality, these trauma memories are critical therapeutic targets for trauma-related disorders. However, existing mechanistic and therapeutic models often overlook the unique phenomenological properties – or a patient’s lived experience – of intrusive trauma memories. Clinical accounts and lived-experience narratives about trauma memories highlight their sensory vividness and “here-and-now” reliving properties. It is our premise that identifying the brain-based mechanisms of these properties of trauma memories may facilitate the development of novel and accessible therapeutic interventions. Using cutting-edge neuroimaging approaches in trauma-exposed adults, our work examines how the organization and dynamics, or moment-to-moment changes, of intrinsic brain activity may contribute to the sensory vividness, intrusiveness, and reliving qualities of intrusive trauma memories. Specifically, this talk will focus on evidence for a “sensory disinhibition” model of trauma memories, which suggests that over-active sensory systems in the brain may disrupt the organization of intrinsic brain activity and contribute to the spontaneous emergence and distressing vividness of trauma memories. Additional data will demonstrate how we can facilitate the inhibition of these over-active sensory systems using ambulatory, non-invasive neuromodulation techniques to potentially treat intrusive trauma memories. Overall, this talk will demonstrate how incorporating daily lived experiences of trauma memories using ecological momentary assessments can help inform our neurobiological models of trauma symptoms. This paves the way not only for the development of novel interventions, but also advocates for the incorporation of more participant-/patient-centered research methods in order to better capture the lived experience of trauma symptoms.