Clinical Translation of Memory Reconsolidation Research: Therapeutic Methodology for Transformational Change by Erasing Implicit Emotional Learnings Driving Symptom Production

The annulment of a human emotional memory through reconsolidation behavioral updating has been documented in over twenty laboratory studies since the first such report in 2010. However, fourteen studies have reported non-replication, the cause(s) of which remain unclear. This review examines all successful and unsuccessful studies in detail, in an attempt to identify (a) the specific probable causes of non-replication and (b) how clinical translation might optimally be designed. For analyzing non-replications, a set of criteria is defined for principled identification of specific moments of prediction error (PE) in experimental procedures, including latent cause transitions, based on a preponderance of empirical evidence. A previously overlooked element of experimental procedure is in that way identified as being potentially decisive, and a unified, testable explanation is proposed for behavioral updating successes and failures in terms of the presence or absence of a PE experience. That in turn allows successful studies to be compared for the internal experiences induced in subjects, rather than compared for their external procedures, revealing an invariant set of three experiences shared by all successful updating studies despite their diverse procedures. Clinical translation, defined as replication of those experiences, not any particular procedure, is illustrated by an actual case, one of many published cases that have documented prompt transformational change produced by that specific methodology, suggesting memory reconsolidation as the mechanism of change. Lastly, the core empirical findings of successful reconsolidation updating studies are compared with previously proposed frameworks of memory reconsolidation in psychotherapy, exposing significant departures from scientific fidelity.

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Clinical Translation of Memory Reconsolidation Research: Therapeutic Methodology for Transformational Change by Erasing Implicit Emotional Learnings Driving Symptom Production

10.31234/osf.io/zrq2m ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Bruce Ecker

Keyword(s):

Target Material ◽

Transformational Change ◽

Clinical Translation ◽

Memory Reconsolidation ◽

Clinical Implementation ◽

Clinical Literature ◽

Wide Range ◽

Case Vignettes ◽

Research Findings ◽

New Interpretation

After 20 years of laboratory study of memory reconsolidation, the translation of research findings into clinical application has recently been the topic of a rapidly growing number of review articles. The present article identifies previously unrecognized possibilities for effective clinical translation by examining research findings from the experience-oriented viewpoint of the clinician. It is well established that destabilization of a target learning and its erasure (robust functional disappearance) by behavioral updating are experience-driven processes. By interpreting the research in terms of internal experiences required by the brain, rather than in terms of external laboratory procedures, a clinical methodology of updating and erasure unambiguously emerges, with promising properties: It is applicable for any symptom generated by emotional learning and memory, it is readily adapted to the unique target material of each therapy client, and it has extensive corroboration in existing clinical literature, including cessation of a wide range of symptoms and verification of erasure using the same markers relied upon by laboratory researchers. Two case vignettes illustrate clinical implementation and show erasure of lifelong, complex, intense emotional learnings and full, lasting cessation of major long-term symptoms. The experience-oriented framework also provides a new interpretation of the laboratory erasure procedure known as post-retrieval extinction, indicating limited clinical applicability and explaining for the first time why, even with reversal of the protocol (post-extinction retrieval), reconsolidation and erasure still occur. Also discussed are significant ramifications for the clinical field’s “corrective experiences” paradigm, for psychotherapy integration, and for establishing that specific factors can produce extreme therapeutic effectiveness.

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Erasing Problematic Emotional Learnings

Neuroscience of Enduring Change ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190881511.003.0011 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 273-299

Author(s):

Bruce Ecker

Keyword(s):

Common Factor ◽

Research Priorities ◽

Transformational Change ◽

Memory Reconsolidation ◽

Corrective Experience ◽

Experiential Techniques ◽

Memory Contents ◽

Therapy Sessions ◽

The Brain ◽

Clinical Methodology

This chapter examines how the effectiveness and unification of psychotherapy are advanced by neuroscientists’ findings on memory reconsolidation, the brain’s innate mechanism for profound unlearning. Research relevant to psychotherapy is reviewed and mapped unambiguously into a clinical methodology of transformational change, the therapeutic reconsolidation process (TRP), applicable to all symptoms arising from memory contents. The TRP is defined as a set of experiences required by the brain, allowing implementation by any suitable experiential techniques, without dictating particular forms of therapy. Detection of TRP fulfillment in published case studies from diverse therapy systems suggests that the TRP provides psychotherapy unification and, functioning as both a specific and a common factor, may be responsible for transformational change occurring in any therapy sessions, which would confirm and advance the “corrective experience” paradigm. A coherence therapy case example serves to demonstrate TRP implementation, and research priorities are suggested.

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Relative Importance of Leader Influences for Subordinates’ Proactive Behaviors, Prosocial Behaviors, and Task Performance

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000105 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 70-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Dan S. Chiaburu ◽

Troy A. Smith ◽

Jiexin Wang ◽

Ryan D. Zimmerman

Keyword(s):

Task Performance ◽

Transformational Change ◽

Future Research ◽

Contingent Reward ◽

Work Effectiveness ◽

Leader Influence ◽

Member Exchange ◽

Proactive Behaviors ◽

Reported Data ◽

Transactional Leader

We meta-analytically examine the relationships between three forms of leader influence, contingent reward (transactional), leader-member exchange (LMX; relational), and transformational (change-oriented) on subordinates’ proactive behaviors. Using non-self-reported data from a combined sample of more than 9,000 employees, we confirm positive relationships between leader influences and employee proactive outcomes. We examine the extent to which one leadership influence is stronger than the others in promoting subordinate proactivity. By combining our new meta-analytic data with existing meta-analytic correlations, we further investigate the extent to which various leadership predictors are differentially related to proactive and prosocial contextual performance, and to task performance. For all outcomes, there are only minimal differences between the contingent reward, LMX, and transformational leadership predictors. Using our results, we propose future research directions for the relationship between leader influences and subordinate work effectiveness.

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