Comparisons of eye movements and matched changing visual input

- Understanding EMDR can help us maximize its therapeutic potential.
- Some propose that visual input received during EMDR is the key to its effect.
- We compared eye movements to a matched visual task.
- Eye movements were more taxing of working memory resources.
- Eye movements had a greater impact on memory vividness and emotionality.

Background and objectivesDuring EMDR trauma therapy, performing EM taxes WM, and simultaneously recalled memories become less vivid. It has been proposed that this WM occupation results from CVI which occurs during EM. This study sought to compare the effects of EM on memory to a task presenting identical visual stimulus to stationary eyes..MethodIn Study 1, participants recorded RT while performing two tasks: EM, and a task with visually identical images displayed on screen. In Study 2, these same tasks were performed while simultaneously recalling negative emotional memories.ResultsStudy 1 found RT was slowest in the EM condition, while RT in the CVI condition was still slower than in the control condition. Study 2 found decreases in memory vividness and emotionality after EM, while after CVI there was a small decrease in negativity which was not greater than in the control..LimitationsNeither study included EM with no visual input; conclusions cannot be made about the effect of motor movement on WM taxation or recall. As neither study was conducted with trauma patients, it is unknown if the observed effects would be comparable in the population for which EMDR is intended.ConclusionsPerforming EM taxes more WM resources and has greater impact on both memory vividness and emotionality than matched CVI. This demonstrates that the effects observed in EMDR treatment are the result of more than occupying WM systems with visual stimuli alone..