# Inhibitory control impairments underlie associative memory deficits in posttraumatic stress disorder

## TL;DR

PTSD patients have memory issues linked to poor inhibitory control, which affects their ability to distinguish between traumatic and neutral cues.

## Contribution

This study identifies inhibitory control impairments as a key factor underlying associative memory deficits in PTSD.

## Key findings

- PTSD patients showed lower performance in inhibitory tasks and associative memory compared to controls.
- In PTSD, better inhibitory control correlated with better pictorial associative memory performance.
- Higher false-alarm rates in PTSD patients were negatively correlated with inhibitory performance.

## Abstract

Posttraumatic-stress disorder (PTSD) patients suffer from cognitive dysfunction and show impairments even in non-trauma-related memory. Research has focused on the relationship between associative-memory and PTSD severity due to patients’ tendency to over-generalize from traumatic cues to neutral ones, leading to escalation of traumatic symptoms. In this study we aim to test to what extent inhibitory control impairments are correlated to associative-memory deficits in PTSD.

Twenty PTSD and 22 control participants were included. Posttraumatic symptoms were assessed via a board-qualified psychiatrist and the Post-Traumatic Diagnostic Scale. Inhibitory abilities were evaluated using the anti-saccade task and memory performance was probed using a words/pictures item-association paradigm.

Generally, PTSD patients performed lower than controls in both tasks. Lower associative-memory performance was observed in posttraumatic patients and was attributed to increased false-alarm rate in this group. In addition, we observed a strong significant positive correlation between associative pictorial memory performance and inhibitory performance, and in accordance, a significant negative correlation between the number of false-alarm responses in the associative pictorial test and inhibitory performance in the PTSD group.

These results support the hypothesis that inhibitory control impairments are associated with (pictorial) associative-memory deficits in PTSD.