A Model for the Flash Technique Based on Working Memory and Neuroscience Research

This article presents a model for understanding how the Flash Technique (FT) may work in the brain and provides potential avenues for experimental confirmation. In the FT, the client reminds himself of a traumatic memory without dwelling on it but instead focuses on a positive engaging focus and then blinks his eyes as prompted by the therapist. Clients have reported signs of memory reconsolidation, for example, the memory getting blurry and a reduction in emotional response. While the originators of FT did not offer a detailed mechanism for FT, this article proposes that during the blinking, the patient’s periaqueductal gray (PAG) takes over, senses the reminder of the traumatic memory and reflexively triggers the amygdala. As part of a system suggested by Porges (2009) for neuroception, the PAG works reflexively to assess danger without going through the conscious brain. Recent fMRI data show that for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients, there is enhanced connectivity from the amygdala to the left hippocampus. As a result, triggering the amygdala may, in turn, activate the left hippocampus, which may then provide a brief access to the traumatic memory. Given the brief access, there is not enough time for the amygdala to go into overactivation. The client remains calm while accessing the traumatic memory, thus setting up the prediction error necessary for memory reconsolidation. This process is repeated many times during blinking in FT to allow memory reconsolidation to proceed, in some cases, to completion. This model is open to experimental confirmation.