Imagery rescripting (IR), which aims to modify the representation of aversive memories to reduce associated emotional distress and psychological symptoms, has been confirmed as effective in a range of disorders related to childhood abuse (CA). Yet, the neural mechanisms underlying IR and their relationship with imagery tendency are still unknown. Here, 68 young adults with a history of CA performed self-generated rescripting and re-exposure tasks while electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. In the rescripting task, participants viewed neutral or unpleasant pictures and then either imagined the same pictures or rescripted unpleasant ones to assess immediate effect. In the re-exposure task, participants passively viewed all pictures without instruction to assess lasting effect. Participants rated their subjective valence and imagery vividness in the rescripting phase or intensity of negative feelings in the re-exposure phase. IR led to an attenuation of the LPP amplitude during the late time window (2,000-6,000ms at parietal-occipital electrodes) and a decrease in self-reported unpleasantness during the rescripting task. After 5-min interval, unpleasant pictures with rescripted history elicited smaller LPP (400-1,500ms at centro-parietal electrodes) and negative feelings than those with imagery history in the re-exposure task. The higher habitual use of imagery was associated with a greater reduction in late LPP during the rescripting phase and full-time range LPP during the re-exposure phase. The current findings suggest that IR has an immediate effect and a lasting effect on subjective and neural response in the CA population. Individuals with higher imagery tendency are likely to profit more from IR.
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Liu et al. (2024) studied this question.
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