A naturalistic paradigm to investigate post-encoding neural activation patterns in relation to subsequent voluntary and intrusive recall of distressing events

Description: Dataset from Visser, Henson and Holmes 2021

In press at Biological Psychiatry CNNI.

The experiment, consisting of three sessions, combined the trauma film paradigm with fMRI scanning, and the completion of a diary to record the daily frequency of intrusive memories over a week. During session 1 six film clips previously shown to elicit a high number of intrusive memories were presented. Clips depicted scenes involving actual or threatened death or serious injury. Each clip was approximately one minute and followed by a 5-minute rest period. After the encoding phase, an additional 6-minute resting-state scan was acquired during which participants pressed a button if an image of the film popped into their minds. At the end of session 1 participants were given a pen-and-paper diary to record any intrusive memories of the films for the following week. Instructions were similar to previous studies (e.g., Lau-Zhu, Henson & Holmes, 2019), defining intrusive memories as mental images from the film clips (“pictures in your mind’s eye”) that occurred spontaneously, i.e., came to mind unbidden.
Approximately 24 hrs after session 1 participants returned for session 2, and were shown brief written descriptions to help them retrieve 3 out of 6 film clips.
Session 3 took place in a laboratory 7-8 days after session 1 and started with voluntary memory recall tests, i.e., (cued) free recall, and verbal and visual recognition, followed by an intrusion provocation task. In addition, several self-report measures were administered across the three days.

Release history:
30 June 2021 - initial release