Copyright 2012 Aileen M. Echiverri-Cohen - University of Washington

and may not be regained. Indeed, older age is related to loss of inhibition function (Woodruff-
Pak, 1997), and may be associated with general slowing of cognitive operations (Salthouse,
1986), or may be related to education in attentional resources or working memory capacity
(Salthouse, 1988). Inhibitory theories on aging posit that cognitive decline may be a direct
consequence of deficits in inhibitory function (Hasher & Zacks, 1988; Posner & Snyder, 1975)
with inhibitory processes declining with age. Indeed, older individuals fail to suppress irrelevant
information on inhibitory measures including Stroop and negative priming (Swerdlow et al.,
1993) and eye movement tasks (Butler & Zacks, 2006). Thus, improvement in inhibitory
processes may be less likely in older individuals.
The present findings point to a potential mechanism underlying treatment response
particularly for PE, highlighting the role of temporal inhibitory attention processes. Future
directions for treatment may involve the development of novel therapeutic applications that
target attentional inhibitory processes. Attentional training, for instance, is associated with
altering attentional mechanisms by improving performance on tasks involving executive control
(Sturm, Willmes, Orgass & Hartje, 1997). It has also shown promise as a therapeutic approach in
improving attention allocation and reducing clinical symptoms across anxiety disorders (Amir,
Weber, Beard, Bomyea, & Taylor, 2008; Schmidt, Richey, Buckner, & Timpano, 2009).
Pharmacological interventions, such as D-cycloserine, may similarly target inhibition by
consolidating inhibitory learning in therapy, resulting in enhancing treatment response (Hoffman
et al., 2006; Ressler et al., 2004). In addition, the association between better PPI and treatment
response points to the possibility of using a biomarker strategy in facilitating treatment response
in PTSD. One clinical implication may be that biomarkers may reflect targets for
pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy to strengthen treatment response in PTSD. In turn, using a
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