Auditory probe evoked potential attenuation was measured as an index of
hemispheric activity in 10 subjects with a history of childhood trauma and
10 matched subjects without such history while they recalled a neutral
memory and then a traumatic memory. There were prominent group differences
in degree of cerebral laterality between memory tasks (P = 0.02). The
trauma group had a significant left dominant asymmetry during the neutral
memory (P = 0.02), which markedly shifted to the right during the
unpleasant memory (P = 0.007 for degree of shift). Normal control subjects
did not display a significant asymmetry during either task, nor did they
show a significant shift between tasks.Abstract Teaser