Examining the long-term cognitive effects of exposure to the Canterbury earthquakes in a resilient cohort.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although most people do not develop mental health disorders after exposure to traumatic events, they may experience subtle changes in cognitive functioning. We previously reported that 2-3 years after the Canterbury earthquake sequence, a group of trauma-exposed people, who identified as resilient, performed less well on tests of spatial memory, had increased accuracy identifying facial emotions and misclassified neutral facial expressions to threat-related emotions, compared with non-exposed controls.

Aims

The current study aimed to examine the long-term cognitive effects of exposure to the earthquakes in this resilient group, compared with a matched non-exposed control group.

Method

At 8-9 years after the Canterbury earthquake sequence, 57 earthquake-expo

SUBMITTER: Bell C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9230545 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature