{"id":1227,"date":"2014-05-02T16:47:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T20:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2017-09-06T12:50:35","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T16:50:35","slug":"how-just-a-loud-noise-can-ruin-someones-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/2014\/05\/02\/how-just-a-loud-noise-can-ruin-someones-day\/","title":{"rendered":"How Just a Loud Noise Can Ruin Someone’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Have you ever been focused on some<\/span>thing, such as\u00a0<\/span>a homework assignment or a TV show, and been suddenly startled by a loud noise?\u00a0 If so, you probably quickly focused on the noise and its source, then returned to the task at hand.\u00a0 This is an example of attentional capture.\u00a0 Attentional capture is the involuntary redirection of attention to an environmental cue, with the purpose of surviving potential predators or dangers.\u00a0 Although we aren’t usually in danger, cues such as loud noises, flashes, or quick movements temporarily grab our attention from our current task.\u00a0 Once we label the potential danger as being safe, we easily return our focus back to our original task.\u00a0 However, not everyone can return to their previous task so easily.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the war in Iraq and Afghanistan slowly comes to an end, the military and the military families have begun to focus on the longer lasting effects of war on the men and women that served overseas.\u00a0 Many of the injuries sustained in the Middle East have been physical, and are being treated as such by doctors and nurses.\u00a0 However, it is estimated that 10-20% of the remaining men and women suffer from a psychiatric injury, called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.<\/p>\n

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a disorder that originates from experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event.\u00a0 Its symptoms include nightmares, feeling detached and numb, becoming easily aggravated, having an exaggerated startle response, and re-experiencing the event through flashbacks.\u00a0 A major issue with veterans in life after war is that they seem to not be able to focus on the task at hand, and that they can’t control their emotional reactions to daily life events.\u00a0 It is possible that attentional capture has an effect on these problems.\u00a0 That is, veterans with PTSD could be more affected by a simple environmental cue such as a knock on the door, which could set off the emotional trauma ingrained in their minds, keeping them from following a normal daily routine.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to test the hypothesis that attentional capture has a major impact on veterans with PTSD, Olatunji, Armstrong, McHugo and Zald created an attention blink task.\u00a0 The study, which you can read here<\/a>, looks at the differences between those with PTSD and those without PTSD, and how their attention differs with threatening cues.\u00a0 Olatunji et al. examined 20 veterans diagnosed with PTSD, 16 veterans who did not have the symptoms of PTSD, and 22 neutral nonveterans to act as a control group.\u00a0 It is important to note that the 16 veterans without PTSD did in fact experience a life-threatening event, but did not show any symptoms of long lasting effects.<\/span><\/p>\n

The attentional blink task examined the way the three groups reacted to a series of images.\u00a0 These images consisted of filler images, distractor images, and target images.\u00a0 The filler images were simply upright photos of landscapes and architecture, meant to fill in the gaps between distractor and target images.\u00a0 The distractor images were either combat-related threatening photos (soldiers in combat), disgusting images (feces), happy images (baby animals) or neutral images (household objects).\u00a0 The target images were landscape or architecture photos, but rotated 90 degrees to the left or the right.<\/p>\n

Seventeen of these photos were flashed one after another to the participants, each image lasting 100ms long.\u00a0 The target images were flashed 200ms, 400ms, 600ms, or 800ms after the distractor images.\u00a0 After the 17 photos were flashed, the participants were asked to determine whether they saw the target image (the image rotated to the left or right), and if so, what direction it was rotated.\u00a0 Olatunji et al. were interested in whether the combat-related distractors would uniquely impact the veterans with PTSD when trying to see the rotated image, and if so, how long the effects would last.\u00a0 If they found that to be true, it would suggest that veterans with PTSD have their attention captured by the threatening image, with an inability to break free of that capture.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Olatunji et al. found that when the distractor image was combat-related, veterans with PTSD had a lower detection rate of the target image and lower accuracy in determining the rotation.\u00a0 However, the veterans without PTSD and the nonveterans both scored a similar, higher score.\u00a0 This shows that the combat-related image only negatively impacted the ability for veterans with PTSD to pay attention to the task at hand.\u00a0 Even though the veterans without PTSD had experienced a life-threatening event, they were not negatively impacted by the threatening image.\u00a0 This shows that people with PTSD have a harder time paying attention to a task when previously exposed to any level of threat.<\/p>\n

Olatunji et al. found that the other three distractor images, the disgusting, happy, and neutral images, did not differentiate the veterans with PTSD from those without PTSD.\u00a0 This shows that veterans with PTSD are not affected by everyday cues, such as an image of feces, but rather only life threatening cues.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Olatunji et al. were interested in how long the effects of the combat-related images would last on veterans with PTSD.\u00a0 As stated before, the target image was flashed either 200ms, 400ms, 600ms, or 800ms after the distractor image.\u00a0 The veterans with PTSD were only negatively impacted when the target image was 200ms, 400ms, and 600ms after the combat-related image.\u00a0 If the target image was flashed 800ms after the combat-related image, the veterans with PTSD had the same accuracy as the veterans without PTSD and the nonveterans.\u00a0 This shows that after about 600ms, the effects of the threatening image have worn off.\u00a0 It also shows that the combat-related image negatively impacts people with PTSD for up to 6 images, which is a relatively long time in a test only lasting 17 images.<\/p>\n

We can learn a lot about why veterans with PTSD act the way that they do.\u00a0 Olatunji et al.’s study shows that those with PTSD have a harder time redirecting their automatic attention responses from an attention-capturing threat back to their task at hand.\u00a0 For example, if a veteran with PTSD hears a loud bang from something falling, he or she will have a harder time determining that the area is safe, and that he or she can return to normal daily activities.\u00a0 Furthermore, Olatunji et al. found that these effects can last for 600ms, a relatively long time for a small detection task.\u00a0 This shows that veterans with PTSD have a harder time controlling their automatic reactions to external cues, and have a harder time disengaging from a threat.\u00a0 This can explain why they often have flashbacks, and often escalate situations that seem minimal to everyone else.<\/p>\n

This study is beneficial in the more general sense because it looks into a possible way to better detect PTSD.\u00a0 Currently, PTSD is difficult to detect, as veterans must come forward and ask for help, and usually are hesitant to do so.\u00a0 However, if veterans with PTSD score worse on this task when faced with a threatening image than veterans without PTSD, then this could help point doctors in the right direction early.\u00a0 Early detection and treatment is imperative to save the lives of the members of our military.<\/p>\n

This study is very important for everyday readers, as we all know someone who has served in a war.\u00a0 If we can understand the things that can negatively impact someone with PTSD, we can help prevent them.\u00a0 Beyond war, car crashes, sexual violence, and domestic violence can all lead to PTSD, as they are life-threatening experiences for everyone involved.\u00a0 Understanding how symptoms can arise from simple cues that reference the original experience can help us work with friends or family that are affected.<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/p>\n

Olatunji, B. O., Armstrong, T., McHugo, M., & Zald, D. H. (2013). Heightened attentional capture by threat in veterans with PTSD.\u00a0Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122<\/em>(2), 397-405<\/p>\n

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Have you ever been focused on something, such as\u00a0a homework assignment or a TV show, and been suddenly startled by a loud noise?\u00a0 If so, you probably quickly focused on the noise and its source, then returned to the task at hand.\u00a0 This is an example of attentional capture.\u00a0 Attentional capture is the involuntary redirection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4946,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80216],"tags":[150202,370831],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4946"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3675,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/3675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}