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-exposed resilient (69% female, mean age 56.8 years) and 60 non-exposed individuals (63% female, mean age 55.7 years) completed a cognitive testing battery that assessed verbal and visuospatial learning and memory, executive functioning, psychomotor speed, sustained attention and social cognition. Results With the exception of a measure of working memory (Digit Span Forward), no significant differences were found in performance between the earthquake-exposed resilient and non-exposed groups on the cognitive tasks. Examination of changes in cognitive functioning over time in a subset (55%) of the original earthquake-exposed resilient group found improvement in visuospatial performance and slowing of reaction times to negative emotions. Conclusions These findings offer preliminary evidence to suggest that changes in cognitive functioning and emotion processing in earthquake-exposed resilient people may be state-dependent and related to exposure to continued threat in the environment, which improves when the threat resolves.