Re: differential mechanism

PTSD can be viewed as a fearconditioning. The CS evokes the mental and bodily reactions that were part of the UCS-situation.
The exposure in EMDR-therapy is an exposure to evoked trauma-memory. The memory in its mental and body aspects is the CS. The way the exposure is done is in a rhytmic way.The memory is evoked, a sensory stimulation is added and then there is a pause for verbal communication focused on the actual experience. Then there is a new cycle. It is not so easy to compare this kind of exposure with a more stable exposure over time.The aspect of rhytm is also introduced in EMDR-treatment by the way the sensory input is delivered. In order to compare methods the specific elements must be described. Perhaps the rhytmic aspect of the EMDR-method is such a factor that also need to be adressed? The rhytm per se might be of interest.
I agree with Cahill that we must be careful not to look for fancy theories in order to find explanation for clinical observations. But I believe that the factor of rhytm in therapeutic work done to diminish the power of fearconditioning is worth looking into.
The neurophysiological hint in this direction from rat research is that locus coeruleus is firing noradrenalin and promoting attention. It fires is a rhytmic regular way and this also opens the dopamine gates to the frontal cortex that is needed for conscious behaviour. In severly stressed rats the rhytm of NA firing is broken and replaced by wild random firing. The loss of rhytm in the locus coeruleus closes down the dopamine release in the frontal cortex.
Restauration to a non-fearful state thus entails a restauration of rhytm in this brain circuit. The relation between this rhytm and various therapeutic measures is not researched upon as far as I know.But jumping back to the more concrete questions of comparisons
one aspect in doing comparison could be to compare rhytmic to non-rhytmic exposure with and without sensory stimulation.

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