Imaging repressed memories in motor conversion disorder

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Conversion disorders comprise neurologically unexplained symptoms with a presumed psychiatric cause, though a neuroscientific basis for this is lacking. The standard psychiatric model of conversion holds that events and processes that might explain the symptoms are, by hypothesis, either repressed or subconscious. This makes assessments based on subjective reports unreliable. We circumvent this by using a standardized method to quantify stressful life events and by assessing objectively the neural correlates of emotion processing. METHODS: Single case study of a 37-year-old woman with clinically repressed recall and unexplained right-sided paralysis. We describe the application o..